


Catch Me If You Can

by maximalist



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Baggage with Enemies to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers With Baggage, F/F, Fake Marriage, I guess more tags will be added along the way if necessary, Slow Burn, Spy AU (...in the loosest sense of the term), With a Fake Child as the cherry on top!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2020-03-05 10:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 43,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18826912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maximalist/pseuds/maximalist
Summary: “Congratulations,” Jihyo says, her smile getting more crooked the harder she holds her laughter back, “it’s a bouncing preteen girl.”Or: the last thing Nayeon ever wanted was to go on some road trip fake-married to the bane of her existence, Myoui Mina, and with a fake-daughter-that's-actually-the-daughter-of-a-nuclear-engineer-on-the-run to boot.





	1. SEOUL → BEIJING

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina is the one that breaks the silence: “Married.”
> 
> Jihyo hums a small mm-hm and nods. “Married.”
> 
> Mina’s face twists into a scowl and it sends Nayeon howling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This AU came into being when, one night, for some reason, I felt like mourning the sequel to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. that we will most likely never, ever, _ever_ get. It only made sense for me to rewatch the movie, of course, for the one millionth time... and that's when I got hit with this idea. Long story short, this fic was very loosely inspired by TMFU and then it just became its own thing. Because who doesn't love spies reluctantly working together and begrudgingly caring about each other?
> 
> With this being the tail-end of the semester, I've once again found more time to write things that aren't academic/research papers. I love writing those too but I've missed writing fic just as much. Just so happens that Twice had their comeback with Fancy, and despite having not written for Twice in a long time (and having a bit of a falling out with kpop in general), I really wanted to write something for my best girls Mina and Nayeon, who I felt fit this trope/AU perfectly. The title is also taken from [the bridge of Hot](https://youtu.be/atN-QGf2qlM?t=128).
> 
> Finally, as a blanket disclaimer, though I have tried to make this as factually accurate as possible, there _are_ still a lot of... handwave-y (?) stuff here and there. I wouldn't know how to Spy for the life of me. Many creative liberties were taken, basically.
> 
> So: let's get on to it, then.

Nayeon dislikes a lot of things.

For starters, she dislikes the coffee served in the vending machines littered around HQ. She will always choose freshly brewed coffee over the shit those machines churn out, either too bitter or too sweet for her taste, depending on her luck, but she didn’t always have the luxury of enjoying nice, not shitty coffee. Long hours spent poring over file after file after file, the closest she’ll ever be to experiencing a _desk job_ (just the thought of it sends shivers down her spine), and even longer hours spent in meetings or briefings could only ever afford her the luxury of shitty vending machine coffee. They do the trick, keep her awake. Doesn’t mean she has to _like_ them.

She dislikes her landlady’s son who has probably never heard of the concept of subtlety ever in his entire life. It’s not that he’s a creep, not exactly, but the last thing Nayeon needs when she trudges up the stairs to her apartment after a long day of meetings or having her ass kicked and kicking some ass back is this guy trying to start up a conversation with her or trying his hardest (and consistently failing) to ask her out on a date. Okay, maybe she doesn’t dislike _him_ per se, but she dislikes the things he does, the nuisance they cause her. She almost feels bad for him. _Sorry, love_ , she wants to say, _I’m not the kind of girl you want to be with. Trust me._ At least he’s okay-looking.

She dislikes it when things don’t go according to plan. She doesn’t like it when things go according to _her_ plan, that is. Nayeon has always prided herself in her ability to get herself out of sticky and tricky situations and she has always prided herself in being able to avoid those situations entirely, but sometimes… sometimes things just get a bit too _uncontrollable_ for her liking. It’s to be expected, of course: spy and intelligence work is not without its own set of risks, with stakes so high they’re dizzying, but Nayeon likes that about her job too. When she’s able to make things work out against all odds, when she’s able to kick, claw and shoot her way out of a sticky situation—those are Nayeon’s proudest moments. So when things go _really_ wrong and she can’t correct them, can’t work her magic, it frustrates her. Make anger thunder in her chest, makes her skin boil.

Nayeon dislikes a lot of things, but there’s one thing she dislikes the most to the point of abhorrence. Well, not some _thing_ , but some _one_.

“So are you just going to continue ignoring me in favor of pretending to read that newspaper?”

Nayeon clenches her jaw.

“You and I both know you’re not one to care about current affairs anyway, but I appreciate all the effort you put into trying to tick me off.”

Nayeon keeps her eyes glued to the same paragraph she’s been reading over and over for the past five minutes.

“Your dedication is quite admirable, I must admit.”

Nayeon all but crumples the newspaper in her hands as she whips her head to finally face the object of her abhorrence, a smirk playing on her lips. “You must really get off to being a massive fucking prick,” Nayeon spits out, and Mina just laughs, mirthless and spiteful.

No other person or thing in the world gets on Nayeon’s nerves the way that Myoui Mina does. It’s been years since they regretfully met each other and that has never changed. Never _will_ change. Mina’s voice, her higher-than-thou, snooty little ballerina aristocratic ass, her ability to push all of Nayeon’s buttons and even create new ones to further irritate Nayeon with—everything about Mina just drives Nayeon up the fucking wall. She’s like the sound of nails being dragged across a chalkboard. Like an itch you can never scratch. Like the fucking coffee that the vending machine shits out, always either too bitter or too sweet.

Mina crosses her arms over her chest and huffs, “I don’t want to be here any more than you do, you know.” It’s annoying how Mina can make such a small gesture like crossing your arms over your chest look so elegant. She looks around the room, as if that’s any use at all, and wonders aloud, “Where _is_ Jihyo anyway?”

Nayeon folds the newspaper and sets it on top of Jihyo’s desk. It’s a giant desk, made of mahogany—Mina would know better; Nayeon doesn’t really care—fitting for the likes of a higher-ranking operative like Jihyo is. Nayeon thinks Jihyo’s more of an over-glorified nanny than anything, having to keep the field agents and operatives on a leash and making sure they play well with each other. To Jihyo’s credit, she’s quite good at it. Magnificent, even, if she’s been the only thing stopping Mina and Nayeon from ripping each other’s throats out every time they had to ‘play nice’ with each other.

“She’s probably late on purpose,” Nayeon grumbles. “You know how she enjoys making me suffer.”

“You’re not special,” Mina retorts, bored. “You’re not the only one having a real shitty time here.”

“I don’t think you get to decide what a ‘real shitty time’ is, nor do you have the right to even be having one,” Nayeon replies, sharp and heated.

Mina slants Nayeon a bemused look. “Are you still _hurt_ about Prague?”

“You were going to leave me _to die_ —”

“There you go again with that. I was _not_ going to leave you for dead. I’ve explained this to you countless times already and—”

“And you are a liar,” Nayeon counters. “You can be a really good one, I’ll give you that, but you are a liar nonetheless and _right now_ , you are _lying_ yet again!”

“Nayeon, this was three years ago. Besides, if I actually _was_ going to leave you for dead, you would have at least died honorably and in service of your country.”

“Oh, _fuck_ y—”

The door clicks open and Jihyo enters just in the nick of time, with a cup of not-shitty coffee in her hand. Nayeon and Mina freeze in their seats, eyes flickering from each other to Jihyo, who returns their gazes with a cocked brow. A moment of heavy silence passes before Jihyo remarks, “Old habits die hard, I see,” then strides across the room to her armchair, because _of course_ she has an armchair. She sets her coffee down on the table, just a few inches shy of where Nayeon’s newspaper lies, and settles down on her chair. She looks at Mina, then at Nayeon, then folds her hands over her lap. “So,” she starts, “you must be wondering why I called the both of you here.”

“Please skip the ceremonials,” Nayeon groans, slumping back against her chair. “Save us the misery, please. I am _begging_ you.”

“Now _that’s_ something I’d like to see,” Mina slyly mumbles, earning herself a burning glare from Nayeon.

Jihyo does not look impressed with their antics, but neither does she look surprised. She  heaves a long-suffering sigh. “I think you’ve already figured out why I asked for the both of you.”

“Yes,” Nayeon says, “and I don’t like it.” Mina snorts, uncharacteristically ungraceful. Something about that pleases Nayeon. She continues, equally irritated and gleeful, “So, what’s our lovely little cover-up this time, hm, Jihyo? Did we break off our engagement from a few missions ago, or are we still a lovely and happy little couple? Do I get to be the duchess of some Disney-sounding place no one’s ever heard of? Is she my maid?”

Mina side-eyes Nayeon, mumbling something under her breath and in Japanese, as if Nayeon doesn’t speak Japanese herself. “Please, Jihyo, for the sake of our friendship,” she says to Jihyo, easily slipping back into Korean, “get this over with already so I don’t need to spend a second longer in this woman-child’s presence.”

“You’re getting creative with your insults,” Nayeon manages to squeeze in just before Jihyo says, brows furrowed, “Unfortunately for the both of you, you _are_ still a lovely and happy little couple. Under different identities now, yes, but still a happy couple. In fact, you’re married now.”

The room falls silent, and it’s the kind of silence that hangs heavy in the air, so thick you could cut through it with a knife. Jihyo’s face is unreadable but the expression that’s settled on it is a patient one.

Mina is the one that breaks the silence: “Married.”

Jihyo hums a small _mm-hm_ and nods. “Married.”

Mina’s face twists into a scowl and it sends Nayeon howling.

“Would you look at that? We’re _married_ now! ” Nayeon wheezes. Granted, she hates having to be stuck with Mina again (for the nth time) and as her _fake wife_ of all things, but if it means getting to torture Mina everyday until they get this mission over with, then she’s not going to complain too much. “They really gave us an upgrade with this one. Whose idea was this? Was it Chaeyoung’s? I _bet_ it was, that rascal.”

Jihyo opens her mouth to reply but Nayeon continues laughing before she even gets a word out. Her eyes flicker to Mina, sincerely apologetic.

Mina works her jaw irritatedly. “I’d love nothing more than to file a fake divorce.”

“We haven’t even been fake wives for five minutes and you already want to file a fake divorce? You’re breaking my heart, Mina.”

“I should have left you to die at Prague.”

“ _SEE!_ ” Nayeon roars, slamming her fist down so hard on Jihyo’s desk it makes Jihyo’s cup of coffee jump. “ _YOU_ DID _ATTEMPT TO LEAVE ME FOR DEAD._ ”

“Settle down, you two,” Jihyo starts, but her voice is drowned out by Mina and Nayeon’s as they launch into yet another argument over Prague— _always_ Prague. “Guys, please—could you just— _COULD YOU STOP ARGUING FOR FIVE FUCKING SECONDS?_ ”

Mina and Nayeon settle down quietly, stubbornly, in their seats. They avoid eye contact entirely.

Jihyo massages her temple for a moment and, regaining her composure, begins to scold the two: “Need I remind the both of you that not only are you _adults_ and should be behaving as such, but you are also supposed to be two of our best operatives? The both of you constantly harp on and on about how competent you both are, so the least I expect from you is to act like it.”

“I’m sorry,” Mina murmurs, guilty.

“It’s fine,” Jihyo sighs, dropping the stern-higher-up act. “I know this isn’t… the most desirable situation to be in. Trust me, I do.”

Eventually Nayeon succumbs to her own guilt too: “Sorry for that.”

“You should be,” Jihyo replies curtly. “You could have spilled my coffee.”

Nayeon refrains from making a comment about how unfair it is that Jihyo _always_ takes it so much easier on Mina and instead asks, “So, chief: what exactly are the princess and I supposed to be fake-marrieds for anyway?”

Mina graciously ignores Nayeon’s little nickname for her and nods. “Yeah, I mean, you normally tell us what we’re supposed to be doing first before telling us _how_ we’re supposed to do it.”

Putting her game face back on, Jihyo opens one of the desk drawers and draws out a case folder from inside it. Mina and Nayeon lean forward instinctively, pushing aside all the childish bicker from only minutes ago. Let it never be said that they didn’t know how to be professional with each other when it calls for it.

Jihyo produces one of the files from inside the folder, stapled neatly together with a picture of a man in his forties attached to it with a paperclip. There’s nothing particularly interesting about this man’s face; it was the kind you’d see once and maybe never remember again, the kind that you’d lose in a crowd packed with many other faces you’ll forget. Nayeon sneaks a quick glance and knows that Mina must be thinking the same thing. She can practically hear the gears turning in that pretentious little head of hers.

“This man is Dr. Hong Sanghun,” Jihyo explains, tapping lightly on the picture, “a nuclear engineer for the North Korean government. In 2007, his wife was kidnapped as bait, to lure him in before they chained him down, so to speak, forcing him to head their nuclear program. We’ve been keeping an eye on him, but so have other people.”

Nayeon says, “I can see where this is going,” and Jihyo humors her. Mina takes the file into her hands, flipping through the pages. “So here we have a hot-shot nuclear engineer, and a particularly gifted one, I would assume, if the North Korean government went through lengths to get him. But ‘other people’ have been watching him too, like you said; they want him too, or at least whatever it is he’s been cooking up. Whatever that thing may be, it probably spells bad news for the rest of the world if it falls in the wrong hands, and you want us to retrieve it before anyone else does.”

“Except,” Mina chirps in, eyes glued to one of the pages of the document, “he destroyed any and all copies he had of whatever it is he’s been working on, much to the dismay of the North Korean government—and Russia, and China, and America, to name a few. He was ‘thorough about it’ too, it says in this report, ‘leaving absolutely no traces behind, no breadcrumbs for _anyone_ to follow.’ He’s got an impressive record, I’ll give him that.” Mina’s eyes skim through the report. She freezes, frowns, then looks up. “It says here he managed to flee the country just over a week ago.”

Nayeon cocks a brow.

Rather than addressing her agent’s concerns directly, Jihyo produces another picture from inside the folder and sets it down beside Dr. Hong’s. This time, it’s a picture of a little girl, probably no older than nine or ten years old. “Three years ago,” she says somberly, “Dr. Hong’s wife died of illness, leaving behind with him only their daughter”—she gestures to the second pictures—“Hong Yerim. She was born during her parents’ captivity, and Dr. Hong was supposed to take her with him but was forced to leave her behind in his haste to leave. The North Koreans caught wind of his plans to escape, and he had no choice but to leave the country immediately. How, we’re not certain yet, but it’s like the report says: he was able to flee the country and now people are hunting him down, following the belief that he must have taken a hard disk with all of his research with him.”

Nayeon and Mina exchange glances, a mutual understanding forming between them. Mina asks slowly, “And the girl? What happened to her? Where is she?”

“If he left her behind,” Nayeon adds uneasily, “then it wouldn’t be farfetched to think they’d find a way to use her to get him back.” It sickens her to think of just what atrocities these men are capable of doing to get the message across to her father. She’s heard stories so bad they made her blood run cold.

“Fortunately,” Jihyo answers (both Mina and Nayeon let out the breaths they didn’t even realizing they were holding in), “we have extracted her. We already anticipated the very real possibility of her being used as bait to lure him back, so our agents there snuck her past the border. However, that does not mean she’s completely out of harm’s way. People—many of them, not just the North Koreans—will attempt to get their hands on her. They have probably already figured out by now that we’ve taken her into our custody, so she can’t stay put here either.”

“Frankly, Jihyo,” Nayeon interrupts, “I don’t think a kid like that with this much attention— _bad_ attention—on her will be safe anywhere.”

“I’m going to have to agree with Nayeon on this one,” Mina says, perfunctorily curling her lips in distaste.

Jihyo pauses for a moment to gather her thoughts then says slowly, “Yerim has a distant relative, an aunt, that lives in the Hong Kong. Our agents have made contact with her already, and she’ll be expecting Yerim. Your mission, then, is simple: you will be escorting Yerim to her.” Jihyo slides a crisp piece of paper across the table towards Mina and Nayeon. Written on it is an address. “You’ll be entering through mainland China, where you’ll leave enough bread crumbs for them to follow before you leave Yerim with her aunt. She’ll lay low there for a while until we sort things out. After that, she’s off your hands.”

Nayeon tilts her head to the left. “That’s it?” she asks. “We just go on a little road trip, leave the kid with her aunt, then we get to fuck off. And that’s it.”

“That’s it,” Jihyo affirms.

“Well then,” Nayeon says with a clap of her hands. “The sooner I’m rid of Ms. ‘I was prima ballerina at age 12’ here, the better, so when do we start?”

“Wait,” Mina cuts in, ignoring the prima ballerina comment. “Escorting Yerim to Hong Kong, evading and diverting anyone who might be trailing us: I get all of that. What I _don’t_ quite get is why we have to cover as a married couple to even do any of that.”

Jihyo breaks into a sheepish, and maybe a little amused, smile. “Yeah, about that…”

Nayeon’s attention bounces furiously back and forth between Mina and Jihyo, her brain doing some real Olympic-level mental gymnastics as she connects all the dots there are to connect, squinting hard to read between all the lines there are to read between, and a realization dawns upon her. She whips turns her head to look at Mina, who has horror etched deeply into every fine feature and line of her face. She’s caught on as well.

“Congratulations,” Jihyo says, her smile getting more crooked the harder she holds her laughter back, “it’s a bouncing preteen girl.”

* * *

To be fair to Jihyo, she does have a point: having Yerim pretend to be their adopted daughter at least reduces any possibility of authorities getting too suspicious about Nayeon and Mina taking a child along with them. It gives Yerim the opportunity to fly under the radar long enough for them to get her to safety. All of that is sensible and logical. Nayeon just sees one problem in all of this:

  
"Neither of us look old enough to be mothers," Nayeon says.  
  
She was in her thirties now, sure, but that didn't mean she was mom material. Aside from that, the numbers don't add up either: Nayeon is no expert when it comes to the ins and outs of the adoption process in South Korea, but she knows it's not an easy one. It could take up to years for many couples interested in adopting, and it's not cheap. If she and Mina have a fake child, that must mean they hypothetically got married in their late twenties then proceeded to adopt Yerim (or, well, not-Yerim), and money wasn't a problem for them. All the number crunching makes her brain hurt.  
  
Mina huffs. "I think you should be more concerned about the fact you don't look responsible enough to be a mother."  
  
Standing in the middle of the bickering duo is Jihyo, whose lips curl into a small smile at Mina's jab towards Nayeon.  
  
"Jihyo seems to agree," Mina gloats.  
  
The elevator doors open and Jihyo exits first. Nayeon glares daggers at Mina as she spits out, "Even if I wanted to have kids, it wouldn't be with you," then storms out. She hears Mina let out an annoyed _hmph!_ as she follows behind. _Who's laughing now, bitch?_  
  
They follow Jihyo down the quiet hallway to a meeting room at the farthest end. The sound of their shoes' heels clicking against the marble floor echo all around them. It’s honestly a little too quiet for Nayeon’s comfort but she decides to keep her mouth zipped until they enter the room and finally meet Yerim. She’s already one-upped Mina anyway with her snide little remark earlier, so she can take it easy for now. She relishes the idea of making a complete fool out of Mina in front of child. Now _that_ would be a lot of fun.

Cozied in one of the swiveling chairs around the long table is none other than Hong Yerim herself, chewing delicately on a chocolate wafer. Beside her is Dahyun, gently talking to Yerim as she pulls some more snacks out of a plastic bag. Dahyun looks up as Jihyo, Mina and Nayeon approach, and so does Yerim: curiously, cautiously. Nayeon doesn’t miss the way Yerim narrows her eyes at the three of them for a very brief moment. Something about that pulls at Nayeon’s heartstrings.

“Dahyun,” Jihyo addresses, never one to particularly care for formalities. The weight of her gaze falls on Yerim, who looks directly back at her with that same mix of curiosity and cautiousness.

Dahyun lightly nudges Yerim’s elbow and says, “This is Agent Park, remember? She met with us the other day.” Dahyun’s always been great with a people, a real crowd pleaser, and it doesn’t surprise Nayeon that Dahyun likes kids but with the way she’s talking to Yerim, you’d think she was talking to a preschooler that’s just learned how to draw with crayon for the first time. Then again, how do you even act like things are completely normal given the circumstances of this kid’s entire life? Dahyun’s trying her best, silly as her attempt might come off.

“Hi again, Yerim.” Jihyo offers her as kind a smile as a situation like this permits. Nayeon knows Jihyo’s trying her best not to make her soft spot so obvious. “How are things so far here? Have you settled in just fine?”

Yerim looks at Dahyun first, as if to ask for her to confirm that it was okay for her to speak. When Dahyun gives her an encouraging nod, Yerim turns back to Jihyo and replies, “Yes. I have. Dahyun unnie’s taken good care of me.”

“That’s good.”  When Yerim looks over Jihyo’s shoulder to where Mina and Nayeon stand, Jihyo clears her throat and asks, “So, do you remember what we talked about the other day? About your aunt?”

Yerim’s lips are pressed into a thin line but she nods all the same.

“We’ve found a way to get you to her safely,” Jihyo continues. It’s beginning to sound like a pep talk, Nayeon thinks, a little awkward and too hopeful for its own good, but dealing with _children_ is not something any of them are used to here.

Yerim looks at Mina and Nayeon again.

Jihyo steps aside, gesturing for the subjects of the girl’s interest to step forward. “Come on,” she tells them, “go introduce yourselves.”

“Hi, Yerim,” Mina greets, her voice and smile and eyes so impossibly gentle. Mina has never had much gentleness to spare for Nayeon, so this is all so foreign to her. “I’m Mina. It’s nice to meet you.”

Nayeon observes Yerim’s reaction to Mina first (she looks like she likes Mina already... _of course_ she does) before she says, “Hey, kid. Name’s Nayeon.” Yerim looks less impressed this time around. Nayeon brushes it off. The last thing she’s going to do is let a child’s impression of her define her value or whatever. _But_ , she thinks, begrudgingly succumbing to her godforsaken pride, _I have the rest of this mission to prove I’m way cooler than Mina is anyway_.

Yerim continues to size the both of them up silently and Nayeon never thought a child’s gaze could make her squirm. Eventually, she turns to Dahyun and asks, “Are these the ones you told me about?”

Dahyun nods. “They’re two of our best agents here, and you can count on them to get anything done. They’ll take good care of you, I promise.”

“To help you get to your aunt safely,” Jihyo explains to Yerim, “we’ve asked the help of Mina and Nayeon. The three of you will go to Hong Kong through mainland China, but to ensure your safety, Yerim, we’ve prepared covers for the three of you.” She pauses here, waiting to see how Yerim will react. When the young girl says nothing, Jihyo continues, “You will go undercover as the Park family, and you will be Park Yejin, their daughter.”

Yerim only purses her lips. Mina and Nayeon glance at each other.

It’s hard to gage exactly what Yerim is thinking right now, which makes the both of them a little nervous. Admittedly Nayeon’s always had a soft spot for kids but if this kid in particular is going to give them a hard time, then this mission is going to be an even greater pain in the ass. The last thing she ever wanted was to be fake-married to the bane of her existence _and_ have an insolent child on top of it all. Still, she can’t blame Yerim for not trusting them so easily after living the life she’s lived, one that no child ever deserved to go through. Maybe that’s what pulls at Nayeon’s heart so much: when she looks at Yerim, she sees a child but at the same time, she… doesn’t.

“Your trip through China will be made to look like a family trip,” Jihyo goes on, “but you don’t need to worry about the details of that anymore. Mina and Nayeon will take care of everything.” Again, she pauses, cautious as ever. And, again, Yerim doesn’t say anything. Nayeon watches the facade Jihyo puts up melt and puddle around her feet as she promises, “They’ll take care of you."

Something cracks in Yerim too. Nayeon sees it, the way her chin wobbles just a little against her best effort to stop it. _She’s just a kid_ , Nayeon thinks, torn. _Jesus, she’s just a kid_.

“Okay,” Yerim says at last, then her eyes drop to her lap. Softer, she repeats, “Okay.”

Nayeon refuses to let this turn into a sobbing contest, so she tries to lighten up the mood a little with a joke: “Don’t worry, kid. We don’t bite. _Well_. Can’t really speak for Mina over here but you see these?” Nayeon flashes a toothy grin at the perplexed Yerim, then points at her two front teeth. “I’m as harmless as a bunny. Cute as one too.”

Something close enough to a smile settles on Yerim’s face, so Nayeon would count that as a win. She turns to Mina, to rub it in her face that _ha_ , Yerim thinks she’s cool too, but is instead met with a disbelieving but still fond smile. Nayeon’s heart catches in her throat.

Once upon a time, Nayeon used to think that that smile—quiet, disbelieving, fond, affectionate in Mina’s on little way—was the smile meant only for her. The kind of smile that held all of their little secrets and inside jokes. The last time she ever looked at Nayeon like that was in Prague before—

 _Stop it_ , Nayeon commands herself. _Haven’t you gone through enough?_ _Why do you want to do this to yourself?_

Mina catches on quickly to the sudden shift in Nayeon’s mood and demeanor. Her brow is drawn. _Quit looking at me like that_ , Nayeon wants to snap at her, but she holds herself back. She doesn’t need Yerim seeing… that. Not now, and hopefully not ever during the short time they will be together. Mina gets the message anyway and just looks away. If Nayeon catches something like sadness, regret or an apology in Mina’s eyes, she brushes it off. Sweeps it under the rug. Just her eyes playing a trick on her, is all.

In that moment, Nayeon realizes that there’s actually something she hates far more than she hates Mina. The only thing she hates more than Mina herself is the fact that Mina still _knows_ Nayeon—knows exactly how to cut right through Nayeon, knows where it hurts Nayeon the most, knows Nayeon better than Nayeon even knows herself sometimes. Nayeon hates that despite everything that happened, despite _Prague_ , Mina’s still the only one who truly knows her.

* * *

 The meeting is wrapped up shortly after some final words are said, which really just means Jihyo doing all the talking and everyone just nodding along silently. Dahyun and Yerim leave first and on their way out, Yerim looks behind her shoulder at Mina and Nayeon one last time. It’s still hard to say for certain what the girl thinks of them, but Nayeon supposes she must like them well enough.

“Well, that was certainly _something_ ,” Mina remarks.

Nayeon huffs. “You think?”

“At least you didn’t let Yerim see the bickering fools you are just yet, because God knows that’s the last thing she needs to see from her supposed protectors,” Jihyo sighs as she plops down on one of the chairs. She massages her temples. “I mean, this could have gone worse given the… sensitive state Yerim is in right now.”

Nayeon takes one of the other free seats for herself and replies, “I think sensitive is an understatement.”

Only Mina remains standing. “Are you sure she’s even in good condition to be making this trip?” she asks, voice dripping with concern for the young girl. There it is again, that impossible gentleness. “I understand that time is of the essence but it’s clear to see she’s still shaken by everything that’s happened.”

Jihyo quirks her lips to the side, an indication that she was sorting through her thoughts, trying to piece together something coherent out of them.

Nayeon chimes in, “I don’t think either of us are equipped to deal with, you know,” then she waves her hands around vaguely.

“No, I don’t know, actually,” Jihyo replies.

“Trauma,” Nayeon says flatly. “I meant trauma. I thought that was pretty obvious.”

Mina rolls her eyes. “In any case, Nayeon’s got a point,” she concedes then adds, “It could possibly compromise the mission,” as if she realized she was getting too soft for the kid. Nayeon sees right through Mina, of course, but she doesn’t say a word about it.

“I know it’s not the most ideal set-up,” Jihyo says, “but we don’t have much time to spare. You said it yourself: time is of the essence, especially when we’re talking about something that could lead to the destruction of the world as we know it. The sooner we get Yerim out of here, the better.”

It sounds a lot more like _the sooner we get Yerim off our hands, the better_ to Nayeon, but again, she holds her tongue. She understands the sentiments, she does; this is tricky business to deal with. Still, she can’t help but feel… she’s not really sure how to describe this feeling. Guilt, maybe? Pity? Who knows, really. Whatever it is, it doesn’t feel nice.

“I just need you to do your best to make sure nothing happens to Yerim,” Jihyo tells them, her tone graver this time. “Obviously because she’s a valuable asset, the only link left to Dr. Hong, but… but also because we promised her nothing would happen to her. Promised her we’d keep her safe. I know we haven’t completely won over her trust yet, and that’s to be expected given everything she’s been through, but I could see that she believed in our promise anyway. We owe her that much.”

Mina and Nayeon look at each other now, understanding that what Jihyo means is she wants them to behave for the sake of not only the mission, but for Yerim especially.

Mustering her most diplomatic voice, Nayeon says to Mina, “I think we can be responsible fake parents and put aside our differences long enough for the sake of the—sorry, _our_ —kid, can’t we?”

“Are you calling for a truce?” Mina teases.

“More like a _semi_ -truce but—”

“A _semi_ -truce. Really?”

Nayeon smirks. “Take it or leave it, babe.”

Mina narrows her eyes at Nayeon, at the mocking little ‘babe’ she threw in there with the sole intention of annoying Mina, but says, “Okay, fine. Semi-truce.”

“Semi-truce,” Nayeon echoes. She gets to her feet and walks towards Mina, hand extended. “Let’s shake on it. Just to, you know, make it feel more official.”

Mina gives Nayeon’s hand a firm squeeze… so firm it makes Nayeon hiss in pain.

“That official enough for you, _babe_?” Mina taunts right back.

Nayeon nurses her hand with a _tsk!_

Mina leaves first, squeezing Jihyo’s shoulder as a goodbye and telling Nayeon more coldly, “0800 tomorrow, don't forget. Put up as many alarms as you need for it too so you don't sleep in like the last time.”

 _Dickhead_ , Nayeon thinks. “Yeah, yeah,” she grumbles. “Piss off already, princess.”

Mina leaves the room laughing.

It’s just Jihyo and Nayeon now. Jihyo waits for Nayeon to sit down again before she says, “ _That_ could have gone much worse.” She smiles teasingly, knowingly. Maybe even a little apologetically.

Nayeon just groans weakly, lifelessly, in response. Mina’s always had this talent for draining the life right out of her.

They sit together in complete silence for a solid minute. Finally, Jihyo asks Nayeon, “You okay?”

Nayeon doesn’t say anything.

“You can't just ignore th—”

“I have no idea what you’re asking me that for,” Nayeon interrupts tightly.

“Come on, Nayeon, you know you don’t need to pretend with me. Not like you _can_ , anyway. I know you better than that.”

Nayeon crosses her arms over her chest like a stubborn five-year-old. She’s not going to admit to anything if she doesn’t want to. Not even Jihyo can make her.

Jihyo knows this, of course. “I know you’re not so mad about the whole being left for dead thing than you are about… everything else that went down in Prague. I know you’re still heart—”

“Stop,” Nayeon cuts in, voice sharp and brittle all at once. “Just— _I’m not_ —don’t even finish that sentence.”

Jihyo’s voice is so soft it hurts: “Nayeon…”

“What?” Nayeon all but growls back. “Jesus, just let it go already. Don’t—don’t talk about it anymore. Don’t even _think_ about it, because I sure as hell don’t. Think about it, I mean. I don’t think about it.”

“Your stubbornness is easily your best and worst trait,” Jihyo chuckles softly. “Listen, it’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it with me now or ever at all, but you should at least talk about it with Mina. You owe yourself that much.”

Nayeon is thrown by that. There’s a moment’s pause before she finally mumbles, “It’s been three years.” She doesn’t really know what point she’s trying to make by saying that, or if she’s addressing Jihyo or herself. The words feel strange on her tongue. _Three years_.

“I know,” Jihyo replies consolingly, as if she were putting ice on a bruise that’s never quite healed. Nayeon tries not dwell on that too much.

“Three years,” Nayeon repeats, then quickly appends, “is a long time. And I’m fine. You know I’m fine. I don’t need—I don’t need to talk about _anything_ with _anyone_ because _I’m fine_ . Think whatever you want to but I’m telling you now that whatever you’re thinking, you’re dead wrong. I’m not—” The word catches in her throat. “Point is, I’m not going to fuck up this mission all because I hate Mina’s guts, and _for many other reasons_ that go beyond Prague.”

Jihyo regards her discerningly for a long moment before she lightly and half-heartedly scolds, “You really need healthier ways to cope with your emotions, you know.”

“I’ve handled more than my fair share of near-death encounters and have walked out of each and every single one of them alive,” Nayeon counters, “so I think I’m doing pretty well for myself, thank you very much.”

“You’re so stubborn,” Jihyo groans like this is brand new information to her but it very much is not. In the end, she does throw the towel anyway: “Since there’s just no way to knock sense into that head of yours, I’m just going to take your word for it as your boss.”

“Wow, you’ve really grown into this powerplay thing haven’t you?”

“But _as your friend_ ,” Jihyo continues over Nayeon’s voice, unamused as she always is with Nayeon’s antics, “I just want what’s best for you. I know you’ve already told me about what happened but even then you refused to _talk_ about it. And I know how it hurt you. But moping around and letting all that anger fester isn’t going to do you any good either. It’s been three years, and it’s about time you face your demons.”

“Demon,” Nayeon corrects. Her eye twitches just the slightest. “Singular. Just one demon.”

“Very funny, Nayeon.”

“Yeah? You don’t look like you find it very funny.”

Jihyo shakes her head. “You know what, have it your way.”

“Now I like the sound of _that_ ,” Nayeon replies, already in a significantly better mood.

“Go,” Jihyo threatens Nayeon, switching back to her Boss Jihyo voice, “before I kick your ass.”

Nayeon gets up from her seat and as she passes by Jihyo, playfully leans down and presses a wet kiss on her cheek. Says, “You know I love you.”

“Gah!” Jihyo wipes her cheek with the back of her sleeve. Nayeon guffaws and Jihyo says more firmly, “I _will_ kick your ass!”

Nayeon walks along then, just before disappearing completely from Jihyo’s view, calls over her shoulder again, “ _You know I love you!_ ”

She doesn't miss Jihyo’s the tired but affectionate response of, “Yeah, yeah. Love you too, jackass.”

* * *

 Nayeon finds Mina waiting outside her apartment building at 0800 on the dot.

Leaning against the hood of a rental car, Mina looks extravagantly bored and unimpressed with Nayeon as she always is. With her Yves Saint Laurent shades perched on the bridge of her nose and a blackish grey coat wrapped around her lean frame, hair pulled into a high and tight ponytail, Mina is a sight for sore eyes... and she sticks out like a sore thumb. Nayeon watches as a young man riding his bike almost crashes into a pole, too distracted gawking at Mina.

"I don't know how you made it this far in our line of business," Nayeon grunts to Mina as she carries her bag down the steps. It's not much, just enough clothes to fit inside her trusted Vuitton travel bag, but the landlady’s son had offered to carry it down for her all the same. Naturally, she turned him down. "You don't know the first thing about not standing out."

Mina scoffs but moves to open the trunk for Nayeon anyway.

"Is this all part of your 'good and loving wife' act?"

Nayeon can't see Mina's eyes behind the large and dark lenses of her shades but she's fairly certain Mina is rolling her eyes at her. She looks around then says, "Nice neighborhood you live in. I liked your old place, though." She slams the trunk shut after Nayeon's placed her bag inside.

"Yeah, well," Nayeon explains, "I got evicted. Sort of. Caused a bit of a mess when that gang I infiltrated found out where I lived."

Mina raises a brow. "Here I thought Dahyun was just making that up."

"My demons have a knack for following me around."

Nayeon is almost glad she can't see anything behind Mina's ridiculous sunglasses because she's not too keen on knowing what Mina feels about that statement.

The ride to the hotel where Yerim is being held is surprisingly quiet. Normally one of them would take the aux cord (or, because those aren't in anymore, connect to the stereo system via Bluetooth) and have a playlist going. Mina's always been the more organized of the two when it came to creating playlists, so more frequently it would be her in charge of the music. She had one specific playlist that catered to both of their tastes, though, and it was _the_  go-to playlist whenever they had to be together. It made long drives tolerable, made brain-numbingly boring lockdowns at hotel rooms slightly less horrible. It was only when she put on that playlist that the bickering stopped and they got along just fine, like they could drop the charades for a while and just enjoy themselves. It was their version of waving a white flag.

Nayeon wonders if Mina still has that playlist or if it's been long deleted.

“It’s not often I see you thinking,” Mina says suddenly, the sound of her voice so jarring after almost thirty minutes of complete, deafening silence. “It’s not often you think _at all_.”

There’s a part of Nayeon that wishes Mina had just been more direct about it. Wishes Mina had just asked, _What’s on your mind?_ , instead of the obligatory roundabout jests meant to hide her genuine concern. Maybe what’s really irking Nayeon is that Mina’s even concerned at all in the first place. It’s disconcerting how Mina can read her so easily; it feels like being at the very front of the line of fire and no matter how hard she tries to shield herself, she’s defenseless anyway.

“Are you getting all of that out now before we have to play house with Yerim?” Nayeon retorts, but there’s not as much punch to it as she’d like.

Mina doesn’t spare Nayeon even a glance, but maybe that’s for the best since she’s the one driving. “Of course. I wouldn’t want _our daughter_ to see us _fighting_ , now would I?”

“You’re exhausting to be with.”

“You’re a pain in the ass yourself.” After a long, heavy pause, Mina looks at Nayeon from the rearview mirror and says, “It’s _painfully_ obvious that something’s bugging you.”

Nayeon recognizes that as Mina’s form of an invitation for conversation. She’s not going to tell Mina exactly what she’s thinking, of course; she’s not an idiot, and moreover, she’s not the idiot that she _was_ three years ago. The last thing she’s going to do is leave herself bare in front of Mina ever again.

“I was just thinking about how there’s just something a little off about all of… this,” Nayeon replies. It’s not _entirely_ a lie: she _has_ spent some time mulling over everything Jihyo’s said, about whatever information the Hongs’ files have given her. There’s something that doesn't quite sit well with her.

Mina glances at Nayeon again through the rearview mirror. “So you’ve thought about that too, huh?”

Nayeon narrows her eyes at Mina. "Just to clarify,” she says, “we're talking about the same thing, right?"

"How am I supposed to know that?” Mina asks back, sarcastic and slightly irritated. “I can't read your mind."

"Sure made it sound like you can, smartass."

"I swear to God, Nayeon..."

Nayeon decides to be a decent person to Mina just this once and holds herself back from laughing, instead explaining, "Okay, okay. It's just... I've gone over everything we've been told and we've been given and I just think there's something a little strange about the lengths we're going through to escort Yerim to her only known blood relative."

Mina takes a left turn then after another beat of silence, says, "Okay, we were definitely thinking the same thing."

"You could have just said that from the get-go,” Nayeon gripes.

"But you were the one who—” Mina scowls, then shakes her head. “ _Anyway_. Yeah, okay. I was thinking the same thing. I mean, it's not like we haven't been tasked to do a few odd jobs before but there's something about this that doesn't quite..."

"Click?" Nayeon supplies.

Mina shrugs. "Yeah, I guess that's a word for it."

Nayeon stares outside the window, out at the cars that whir past them and at the people walking along the sidewalks. She wonders out loud, "Do you think Dr. Hong…”

“...left a copy of his research with Yerim somehow, all without her knowing?” Mina appends, eyes darting to the side mirror before she switches lanes. “I’ve thought about it, yeah.”

“They don’t tell us everything,” Nayeon murmurs, almost like an afterthought. She doesn’t take it personally, not really; she’s used to it already and it’s all just part of her job, after all. She knows Jihyo doesn’t mean anything personal by it either. Still, there are times when it does feel pretty shitty being left in the dark, especially when it’s _her_ life that’s on the line.

“No,” Mina agrees, probably thinking the same thing, “they don’t.”

“But then that only works under the assumption that he had plans to go back for her.” Nayeon frowns. “Somehow. Like, it’d be near impossible but if he _did_ do what we just thought he did, then he’s gonna have a difficult time.”

“What doesn’t really add up for me is why he would leave it with _her_ , if he did leave anything with her. And, I mean: why leave anything _at all_?”

Nayeon shrugs, slumping back against her seat. “You know how people like that can be.”

As vague as Nayeon’s remark is, Mina seems to understand what she’s saying anyway. “It all seems really convoluted and complicated the more we pick it apart, but you and I have seen crazy things. This wouldn’t even be the craziest of it.”

Nayeon hums. Being in this business long enough has taught her that it’s usually best to just not ask. She knows nothing is ever as simple as Jihyo or the Intelligence Service try to make it seem, but she also knows that they try to make it seem that way for the sake of their agents. All Nayeon had to worry about was accomplishing whatever task she was responsible for and if she had any questions, she could keep them to herself. Curiosity killed the cat, so the saying goes, and Nayeon’s not too keen on dying just yet.

The remainder of the drive is quiet again. Nayeon doesn’t mind. They’ve already had their obligatory civil conversation and she didn’t want Mina to get too comfortable and suddenly bring up… things Nayeon didn’t want to talk about. To Mina’s credit, she seems to understand this perfectly (even if she isn’t saying or doing anything to confirm this) and seems to not want anything to do with those _things_ any more than Nayeon does right now.

Good. Perfect, even. As long as they keep this up, they could both walk out of this with their sanity intact and hopefully never have to see each other again.

Just get the kid to Hong Kong, play nice with Mina and then leave. That’s all she had to do and she could go back to blissfully not thinking about Mina ever again.

As they pull up into the hotel’s entrance driveway, Mina asks Nayeon to call up Dahyun and tell her they’re outside already. Nayeon does so, unceremoniously telling Dahyun to ‘get the fuck out already’, and it earns her a slap on the arm from Mina. “What?” Nayeon counters, massaging the spot where Mina hit her. “It’s not like Yerim heard me cursing, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

The car comes to a halt right in front of the main entrance. While they wait for Dahyun and Yerim to step out, Nayeon asks Mina, “You’ve got everything with you?”

“Passports, all other necessary documents, cash,” Mina checks off. “We’re good to go. Tzuyu will meet us at Beijing for everything else.”

‘Everything else’ usually meant guns, knives, the whole shebang—Nayeon’s favorite part of any mission, really. It would be impossible to sneak any weapons through airport security, so it was just standard practice to have a local asset provide necessary weapons for them. In this case, that local asset would be the ever-charming and doe-eyed Tzuyu. Nayeon’s got a particular fondness for the kid.

“Oh,” Mina says, “and one more thing.” She reaches across Nayeon’s lap and pops the glove compartment open, Nayeon watching curiously all the while, and retrieves a small suede pouch from inside it. Nayeon bites back any snarky and absolutely unnecessary remark she wants to make about how even the pouch is as pretentious as Mina is and chooses instead to watch Mina open the pouch, dropping its contents into her palm.

Mina holds out two wedding bands, obviously picked out by _her_ because of the intricate art deco design becked with round-cut diamonds. If these were chosen by anyone else, they would have tried to make it as nondescript as possible and as _cheap_ as possible. Mina is not one to spare expenses, on the other hand, and even if she tries to deny it, she enjoys  _really_ getting in character, nerdy theater kid that she is. Intelligence work is dangerous business but Mina still managed to find some genuine fun in it. It’s one of the more (okay, _most_ ) endearing things about her, Nayeon has to admit.

Nayeon plucks one band from Mina’s palm, examines it and asks, “And how much did these cost you?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Mina replies as she slips the other wedding band onto her ring finger, “I’m gonna have Jihyo reimburse me for it anyway.”

Nayeon spots Dahyun and Yerim emerge from the hotel. In one hand, Dahyun carries a bag that is presumably Yerim’s and her other hand is planted firmly on Yerim’s shoulder as she guides her towards Mina and Nayeon’s car. Nayeon looks back down at the wedding band.

“Do you not like it?” Mina asks, and it would be hilarious that Mina cares so much about whether or not Nayeon likes the damn wedding bands or not if, well… if only Mina didn’t sound so sincere about it. 

So sincere that it makes Nayeon want to not disappoint her. Which is ridiculous, obviously. It’s fucking _bonkers_ that Nayeon would even care about something like that, the same way that Mina would care about stupid fake (well, not technically fake, but in their context they’re definitely fake) wedding bands.

“I can just get us a new pair when we get to Beijing,” Mina continues on. She still sounds like a kicked puppy and it’s still pulling at Nayeon’s heartstrings. Which is so incredibly fucking stupid. God. _Get a grip_. “Or we can just drop the whole wedding bands thing if you—”

Nayeon puts the ring on and groans, “ _There_ , God, just—” Her eyes flicker to the back when Dahyun raps her knuckles twice on the trunk. Mina opens the trunk for them and Nayeon grits out, “I don’t hate the rings, so stop fussing about them already,” to Mina before Dahyun opens the door to the backseat and Yerim slinks in silently.

“Hey, kid,” Nayeon greets, ignoring the way Mina’s still looking at her. She turns to face Yerim, noticing the slight tug at the corner of her lips, the barest hint of a smile. The bunny-teeth joke seemed to the the trick, by the looks of it. That’s good; at least Yerim was warming up to them, regardless of how slow the process is. “You got everything you need?”

Yerim nods. Dahyun gives Yerim’s cheek a soft squeeze and says, “You’re in good hands, Yerim,” then looks at Nayeon and Mina directly when she adds, “They’ll keep you safe.”

What is it about kids that just has everyone getting all soft and mushy anyway?

As they pull out of the driveway, Nayeon glances at Yerim from the rearview mirror. She quietly observes her for a few minutes. All Yerim does is stare out of the window, eyes as wide as saucers as she takes in all of the buildings they drive past on their way to the airport. Nayeon wonders what must be going on in that head of hers. It’s only after a few more moments of quiet observation that she finally takes notice of the dress Yerim is wearing. It’s a simple black dress with a white Peter Pan collar, and it definitely does not look like something she might have brought with her.

“That’s a nice dress,” Nayeon says to Yerim. Yerim is snapped out of her reverie, and she whips her head to look at Nayeon. “I, uh, said I think your dress is nice,” Nayeon repeats, suddenly self-conscious. Which is, again, ridiculous. This morning has just been a whole lot of ridiculous and not even in the amusing way.

Yerim’s face suddenly lights up, as if Nayeon had just told her they were taking her to Disneyland ( _do kids still like Disneyland?_ ), and it makes her heart melt the way puppies can thaw even the coldest of hearts. This is the most expressive—the _happiest_ —she’s seen Yerim so far.

“I had it sent over last night,” Mina explains and it takes Nayeon a moment to register that this is the first thing Mina’s said since they left the hotel and since the whole debacle over the wedding bands.

Yerim’s grinning from ear to ear now. “I brought the other things you sent as well,” she proudly tells Mina, who’s also smiling now, fond and warm. “Thank you, unnie,” Yerim adds more shyly this time, but it’s from the bottom of her heart.

In a way, it doesn’t surprise Nayeon that Mina had gone out of her way to buy Yerim new dresses and probably everything sparkly and pricey as far as the eye can see. After all, if they wanted Yerim to be convincing as their pretend daughter, she had to look the part, and it’s already been established that Mina goes all the fuck out when it comes to these things. But Nayeon knows Mina well enough to know this isn’t something she did purely for the sake of the mission.

“I’m glad you like them,” Mina says. She even sounds a little _relieved_. There it is again, that... that sincerity. Like she sincerely wants Yerim to like her little gifts, and like it would break her heart if Yerim didn't. 

Suddenly the wedding band burns where it touches her skin, and her stomach is left in a tight knot.

Her conversation with Jihyo from yesterday begins to replay itself in her head, like a freight train mercilessly crashing right into her. Nayeon sneaks a glance at Mina, whose smile lingers on her lips. Of course, she’s completely oblivious to Nayeon’s suffering. She always is. She always fucking is.

It’s just barely started, but between Yerim and Mina, Nayeon already knows this trip is not going to be good for her heart.

 

 

 

[♫♫♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIpfWORQWhU)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If things go according to plan and according to my outline, then this should be six chapters long, maybe less or maybe more. We'll see how it goes. As for the song I left at the end, just visualize that playing in the background as the scene comes to a close, kinda like the end of an episode. It's one of the songs part of the AU's ~soundtrack~, and I might drop some of the others as the story goes on.
> 
> I'm also on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/maximalisms/), where I'll be posting fic updates and such.


	2. BEIJING → XI’AN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You're ruining a lot of people's vacations, you know that?" Nayeon taunts. Mina moves to stand back-to-back with Nayeon, facing the assailants from the other end of the hallway. "You really sent that girl to go after us? _Really?_ She's like a babe in the woods; she looked like she was going to shit herself. Also, don't you think ten is a little... overkill?"
> 
> Mina mumbles, "God, you talk so much."
> 
> (No one said motherhood would be easy, fake or otherwise.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So one thing I forgot to mention in the previous chapter was where I got the inspiration for Dr. Hong’s backstory from. Many would not have ever heard of this, but I discovered recently that North Korea has its own version of Godzilla and it goes by the name of Pulgasari. I won’t go into the details of that anymore, but you can read about it here and I think the similarities will speak for themselves, lol.
> 
>  ** _Warning for violence in this chapter, and for future chapters_** , as this is where ~~all the fun~~ action really kicks in. So, yeah. Please heed this warning. Finally, thank you for all the feedback and comments! As mentioned in the tags, I'd be adding more tags along the way if necessary, and you guys have provided some really great tags/mini summaries of what this fic exactly is. Here are my favorites:
> 
> \- "enemies to lovers with baggage"  
> \- "enemies-but-not-really-enemies-with-strong-yet-ambiguous-feelings-towards-each-other-to-friends-to-lovers-after-they-finally-fix-their-shit"
> 
> You guys have honestly summarized this far better than I ever could have, lol. 
> 
> Finally: now is a great time to start suspending your disbelief even more. As stated in the previous chapter, as much as I do try to keep this as factually accurate as possible, I have taken many creative liberties.
> 
> And, without further ado: let's get right to it.

Everything in Nayeon’s life is neatly compartmentalized into either one of two things: 'past' or 'present'. They were either things she no longer had any use fussing about or things she had every reason to still be fussing about. Events, people, problems—as long as Nayeon's already slapped the ‘PAST - DON'T BOTHER, NO LONGER WORTH YOUR TIME’ label on them, they would no longer take up any more space in her mind or in her heart. The only direction life would take for Nayeon is forward: one step, two step, three steps always forward.

This principle of compartmentalization made life… to say it made life _easy_ would be too much of a stretch, but it did make life significantly more convenient for Nayeon. If she touched and got burnt, then she could conveniently just throw that experience behind her, sweep it under the rug, call it a day. Whatever. She had no time to dwell on things, no time for sentimental drivel. Lucky for her, most things were easy to compartmentalize or shrug off.

Well.

Okay.

Most things that _weren’t_ Myoui Mina, who seems to defy categories altogether.

Mina’s like a stain Nayeon simply couldn’t wash away. She’s just… there. Nayeon couldn’t neatly file Mina away in her ‘past’ stash, not when she was still a persistent fixture in Nayeon’s life currently, and not when they’ve been in this together for far too long now that it would be foolish to think Mina wouldn’t somehow still be a part of whatever lies ahead for Nayeon either. She couldn’t move forward— _away_ from Mina—because she would always be taking Mina with her.

If it weren’t so damn annoying, Nayeon would find her predicament a little funny. She’s managed to survive gunshot wounds, multiple stab wounds, broken ribs, a variety of other broken bones, once even a broken nose, et cetera—she’s walked and borderline _crawled_ out of hell so many times and yet she could barely put herself back together after Mina hit her like a hurricane. There’s no moving on with Mina; it’s never as simple as that. There’s never going to be any moving forward when Mina’s got herself anchored into Nayeon’s very being.

Nayeon supposes she was doomed right from the very beginning.

They joined the Intelligence Service at around the same time and they locked horns almost instantly. Nayeon would never admit it out loud, but there was a part of her that was thrilled by the fact there was finally somebody who could catch up with her and kept her on her feet at the same time. She’s still got very vivid recollections of Mina when they first met: she was nineteen-going-twenty at the time, every bit as obnoxious as she still is now so many years later, all quiet and mysterious and self-possessed, but she had a hint of smirk on her lips that suggested she had a _lot_ more going on beneath the too-cool-for-you facade. Mina spelled danger, in bold and bright neon lights, but it was intoxicating, exciting. Had Nayeon known better back then, she would have steered clear of Mina. That would have saved herself all these years of misery and saved herself the shitstorm that was Prague, especially.

Nayeon is jolted out of her thoughts when she feels a sudden weight on her shoulder.

She turns her attention from the window right beside her seat to find that Yerim’s head has lolled onto her shoulder as she soundly snoozes away. Two hours isn’t that long of a flight, but Nayeon’s lost track of time and she’s not sure how much of those two hours she’s spent staring out the window, at the clouds and with her head in the clouds. Yerim’s chest rises and falls with every breath she takes; inhale, exhale. The sight tugs at Nayeon’s heart.

The voice of a flight attendant cuts through the silence in the cabin as she announces, _“Ladies and gentlemen, we have just been cleared to land at the Beijing Capital Airport. Please make sure one last time your seat belt is securely fastened. The flight attendants are currently passing around the cabin to make a final compliance check and pick up any remaining cups and glasses. Thank you.”_

Nayeon considers waking Yerim up but the young girl looked so… _at peace_ that it almost felt like a crime to do so. So she lets Yerim snooze on, head nestled comfortably on Nayeon’s shoulder, and decides to wake her up when the plane lands instead.

She almost forgets what’s been troubling her so much for the entirety of the flight until she whips her head and it’s staring right back at her. Mina, that is, quietly watching Nayeon and Yerim, and there’s a look in her eyes that Nayeon can’t quite place. Nayeon doesn’t want to let herself believe that what she sees in Mina’s eyes is affection; wishful thinking never got her anywhere.

Nayeon tears her gaze aways away from Mina, afraid that if she stares at her long enough, her eyes will betray everything she’s been desperately trying to hold down inside of her.

* * *

The Hotel Coté Cour is a discreet and modest courtyard hotel, an odd bubble of peace and quiet smack dab at the heart of bustling Beijing. Another thing that set it apart from everything else around it is its traditional Chinese architectural design, making the boutique hotel feel like it was frozen in time. Its location could also be considered something of a sweet spot, being only three kilometers away from vibrant Wangfujing and only four kilometers away from the Beijing railway station. Their room is cozy and spacious, big enough to accommodate the three of them. They did get the standard family room, after all, but it's a pleasant surprise all the same. In Nayeon's previous trips to Beijing she'd stayed in bigger and grander hotels, so luxurious you'd feel like you had the world in the palm of your hands, but Nayeon decides she much prefers the laid back air of the Coté Cour.

It's a shame, then, that they only had a few hours to enjoy this hidden gem before boarding the overnight sleeper train to Xi'An later that evening.

Yerim looks around the room in wonder. She'd been like that since they landed at the airport, eyes just short of bulging out of their sockets and jaw just shy of hitting the floor. It both endeared and saddened Nayeon. She doesn't know what Yerim's life was like back in the North but Yerim's reaction to everything around her is enough for Nayeon to surmise that as far as 'the world' is concerned, it had always been a small one for the young girl.

"You like it?" Nayeon asks Yerim. She places her bag into the cabinet after Mina, who's busy checking every nook and cranny of the room for any bugs or other sneaky surveillance devices, gives her the go signal.

Yerim still looks dazed, as if she's seeing color for the first time, but she nods. She blinks then says, "Everything here is so nice," and Nayeon knows she's not just referring to the room.

Mina ruffles Yerim's hair as she walks past her towards the bathroom, the only place she hasn't checked yet. Better safe than sorry, after all. "There are a lot of great things to see here in Beijing," she says from inside the bathroom, "and since we'll mostly be travelling by train, you'll get a lot of great scenery too." She steps out of the bathroom two minutes later and tells her companions, "Okay, room is clear."

Yerim plops down on the edge of the bed and asks hopefully, "Will we go sightseeing?"

Nayeon vaguely answers, "We'll see," if only to avoid crushing the kid's heart.

"Maybe in Xi'An," Mina adds, hopping on the 'let's not disappoint this kid because she's been through so much as is' train. Her eyes briefly flicker to Nayeon. "Or another one of the stops."

Yerim puckers out her lower lip into a small pout but nods, "Okay."

If Nayeon and Mina had it their way, they would stay locked down in whichever hotel or inn they'd stay at before they'd have to leave for the next city by train. That would be the safest option: if ever anyone tried to attack them, they would have full control of their environment at least, in contrast to the free-for-all outside. The objective is to protect Yerim at all costs but Nayeon already knows she and Mina are going to have a hard time resisting the girl's whims and fancies as long as she flashes them those eyes.

What's even worse is that Yerim's pouting reminds Nayeon a lot of Mina's pouting, a habit of hers that betrayed all the softness she hid behind her icey facade. Nayeon could never say no to Mina once she pulled out the signature pout, which is just so obscenely unfair.

Realizing a little too late that she's just made comparisons between Mina and Yerim, Nayeon forces herself to think about other things—literally anything else—lest she suffer a heart attack.

"So we'll be meeting Tzuyu at 1500," Mina briefs them twenty minutes later once they've gotten settled, flicking through the heavily encrypted Service-issued tablet. "Rendezvous point will be the Forbidden City and from there she'll lead the way. As for our trip to Xi’An, I’ll handle booking our tickets."

Nayeon and Yerim occupy opposite sides of the bed while Mina paces around, with the latter busy with the iPad Mina had gotten her ("I didn't get her a new iPad," Mina clarified, "I just happened to have another one lying around", which Nayeon doesn't believe the tiniest bit). It had a bunch of games, Netflix, even Kindle—enough to keep a ten-year-old preoccupied and entertained. Enough to keep her distracted from the gravity of her situation. Nayeon peers over at the iPad screen, curious to see what Yerim is doing.

Nayeon raises a brow. “Did you just buy our fake child… _Stardew Va_ —what is this—a farming simulation game?”

Mina's pacing comes to a halt. She look up from the tablet and focuses all her attention on Nayeon. She looks slightly perplexed as she replies, “Yes. And?”

“A farming simulation game,” Nayeon repeats. This time Yerim look up in confusion too.

Mina tiredly groans, “Nayeon, I swear to God—”

“I hope you’re aware of my anti-landlord principles, you heartless monster.”

The look that falls on Mina’s face is glorious to behold: with her brows pulled into a scowl and lips curled into something short of a snarl, Mina looks like she wants to punch Nayeon in the face. Nayeon knows from experience—meaning, from watching Mina punch someone else in the face and actually getting punched in the face herself (that’s a _long_ story)—that Mina could pack a hell of a fucking punch, but that’s not gonna stop her from taking delight in Mina’s annoyance. If she does end up getting socked in the face then it’ll be worth it.

Mina takes in a deep breath, exhales through her nose, then works her jaw. It was a tic of hers, one of her many tics that Nayeon’s learned to read over time. In the end, she sardonically tells Nayeon, “I am well-acquainted with them, yes. Unfortunately climate change will destroy us all before land will ever be fairly distributed.”

Nayeon feels a jolt like lightning hit her spine, exciting every nerve in her body. It was always like this whenever they’d fall into their aggressive back-and-forths; Mina could match her, punch for punch and quip for quip, and nothing else thrilled Nayeon more than that. She should probably be worried she still feels this way but for now she brushes that thought aside and replies, “Wow, Mina. Just _wow._ ”

“Face the facts, Nayeon,” is all Mina says, and she smiles in a way that isn’t smiling. Nayeon has no idea how she’s doing that with her face but Mina’s always been incredibly confusing like that. (If Nayeon feels any hint of fondness over that, she chooses to ignore it.)

Anyway, Nayeon knows Mina’s just kidding; Mina is the only person she knows who’s read _Das Kapital_ when she was just thirteen. Because who the fuck reads _Das Kapital_ at age thirteen? Oh, right. Mina. Of fucking course.

Mina tilts her head to the side for a moment then teases, “You know, if you’re just jealous I didn’t buy you _Stardew Valley_ , you could have just said so. Not that that would change anything—you can literally afford to pay for this game on your own—but it would have saved you all this trouble.”

“One,” Nayeon counters, crossing her arms over chest, “I am _not_ jealous you bought Yerim this stupid farming simulation game and not me. That’s stupid. Two, I thought you found my dedication admirable?” She cocks a brow.

The way Mina’s lips curl into a smirk makes Nayeon’s heart do funny things, and that glint in her eyes almost knocks the wind right out of Nayeon’s chest, which is also starting to feel really, _suffocatingly_ tight.

Yerim clears her throat awkwardly, reminding Nayeon and Mina that, _right_ , Yerim is here too. Nayeon gathers herself and Mina looks anywhere else but at Nayeon. They’re not even a day into this fake parenting schtick and yet they’re already not doing so well with their play-nice-for-the-sake-of-the-kid agreement.

The situation only gets exponentially worse when Yerim suddenly asks, “What are… anti-landlord principles?” Her eyes expectantly ping-pong back and forth between Mina and Nayeon.

Nayeon swipes a hand over her face as she mumbles, “Oh, Jesus...”

“Oh,” Yerim murmurs, concerned. “Is it a bad thing? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked—”

“No, no,” Mina hastily interjects, “Yerim, honey, it’s fine. It’s not a bad thing, it’s… uh…” Mina chews on her lower lip, unsure of how to proceed and visibly panicking, until she whips her head to Nayeon and snaps, “ _You_ were the one that mentioned it, so _you_ explain it.”

Nayeon can’t believe she just got ‘ _go ask your mom_ ’-ed.

All of Yerim’s attention is now focused on Nayeon and it only takes a few seconds for Nayeon to succumb to the pressure. “So, uh… _right_ , anti-landlord principles. It's, er, a little something like—”

* * *

Autumn is a good look on the Forbidden City. The orange, yellow and red shades of the foliage complemented the buildings all around the palace complex, making it even more picturesque. The weather is pretty nice too, neither too  warm nor too cold, though Nayeon knows it could get quite chilly at night.

Behind the comfort of her sunglasses, Nayeon watches as tourists and locals alike walk along the Golden River Bridges, stopping every now and then to take a picture. One tourist, a middle aged American man, bumps into Nayeon and she’s tempted to stick out her foot and trip him. After he apologizes and scurries along, Nayeon slants a look at Mina and complains, “Tzuyu really couldn’t have picked a less crowded spot here, huh? It’s like she takes pleasure in making my life difficult.”

“You know she does,” Mina replies distractedly, tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as she adjusts her watch to local time. She double checks with the dual clock on her phone before strapping her watch back onto her wrist.

Nayeon scoffs. “I told you to just get a GMT,” she tells Mina with the best _I told you so_ tone she can manage. She wore a GMT herself, one of the more recent additions to Tudor's Black Bay line. Like the classic Rolex GMT, it had a Pepsi bezel. Nayeon had opted for the Tudor rather than the Rolex because the latter was too flashy for her taste whereas she could rough up the former as much as she wanted and it went well with most of her outfits. And, of course, the watch was more than appropriate for the globe-trotting nature of her job. “You wouldn't have to keep going through the tedious task of adjusting the time on your watch back and forth between time zones.”

“Are you really going to argue with me over my choice of watch now?” Mina sighs. “You find so many things to make an issue out of.”

“Yeah, because you're not being practical.”

Nayeon has to admit though, even if it isn't a field-ready kind of watch, the Cartier Tank Mina wears is a beautiful piece. In many ways, it suited Mina and her personality. It had been a gift from her mom too, the only person Mina still maintained any contact with in her family, so Nayeon understands the sentimental value behind it.

Just like earlier in the hotel room, Nayeon is only reminded that they have a ten-year-old pretend daughter with them when Yerim tugs at the sleeve of Nayeon's leather jacket and asks, “What's Tzuyu unnie like?”

Although their walk through the Forbidden City didn't count as sightseeing, it seemed to whet Yerim's desire to explore anyway. She'd spent most of the time quietly taking in her surroundings, throwing some questions out every now and then. She absorbed information impressively fast, affirming she understood with a quick nod to herself. That definitely made explaining anti-landlord principles (and all other related concepts) easier for Nayeon, anyway.

“Tzuyu's really nice,” Mina answers. “She's one of our youngest but she's also already one of our best agents. Likes to bully Nayeon every now and then. You'd like her.”

Yerim ponders on that for a quick moment before she guilelessly remarks, “Is everyone where you work just _that_ nice?”

Nayeon ends up laughing. Even Mina smiles, amused.

“I dunno, kid,” Nayeon jokes, “do _you_ think so?”

Yerim is earnest as ever—bless her heart—as she shrugs and says, “Well, I like _you_ guys,” and Nayeon wishes it didn't make her heart twist in her chest. It's not a bad heart-twisting-in-her-chest kind of twist, but the good kind of twist. It doesn't last very long though because Yerim continues, “The people Papa worked with… weren't always so nice.”

Nayeon feels her stomach drop. She exchanges glances with Mina, who's also experiencing whiplash from the sudden shift in the tone of their conversation.

No one said motherhood would be easy, fake or otherwise.

 _Fuck it_ , Nayeon thinks, _I can afford to be a soft-ass motherfucker just this once_ , and pulls Yerim to her side in what's supposed to be a reassuring hug. “Don't worry, kid,” she says, giving Yerim's shoulder a squeeze, “as soon as we get you to your aunt you won't have to worry about bad people like them anymore.”

Suddenly, a familiar voice cuts through the hustle and bustle all around them: “Well, aren't _you_ the picture of a happy family.”

Mina beams, “Long time no see, Tzuyu.” Even Nayeon smiles as she greets, “Hey, kid.”

Tzuyu flashes them both a dimpled smile as she walks over to them, arms wide open, then pulls them into a hug. She towers over them like she always has but when she pulls away, Nayeon gets a better look at her and can see just how much Tzuyu’s matured since she last saw her. She carries herself differently now, exuding more confidence and ease that, in a way, reminded Nayeon of Mina’s own demeanor; it wouldn’t surprise her if Tzuyu was trying to exude Mina’s aura, given how she’d always looked up to her. Even her eyes are different, more piercing and intense, sharpened by experience. Yet behind all of those changes, Nayeon still sees the same kid that joined the Service all those years ago, quiet but firm, confident but maybe a little cynical.

“Hey, there,” Tzuyu greets Yerim, offering her hand, “you must be Yerim. It’s nice to meet you.”

Yerim looks starstruck. Nayeon doesn’t blame her, because Tzuyu could easily pass off as a celebrity. “Nice to meet you, too,” she mumbles, then adds, “Wow, you’re _tall._ And really, _really_ pretty.”

Tzuyu laughs and ruffles Yerim’s hair. “I like you already.”

They follow Tzuyu to her car, a sleek black BMW (“It didn’t take much to convince Jihyo unnie,” Tzuyu says gleefully when Mina asks her about how she got the car in the first place, “It _is_ absolutely necessary for conducting business, after all”), and spend the rest of the drive catching up with each other before they had to get right down to business later on. Judging from her stories, there’s enough to keep her busy (and entertained) here in Beijing and she seems to get along really well with Jackson and Jia, the two other agents she was stationed with. They were both older than her so they naturally had a tendency to dote on her, which isn’t so different from the treatment Tzuyu used to get back in the Seoul HQ.

The safe house is located along a discreet and quiet alley, not exactly the kind of place that would catch your eye. Anyone passing by would probably never think to look twice at this worn down and otherwise desolate industrial warehouse-turned-living space, and they would never expect it to look the way it does inside. Inside, everything is ultra-modern and chic, with the vaulted ceilings and large windows making the space feel even wider than it already is. The state of the art surveillance tech is out on display and Nayeon is willing to bet that whatever they have here is on par with the tech back in HQ. At the other side of the (very huge and spacious) room is a PS4 and Wii, along with a variety of other things that are meant to help deal with immense boredom.

Jackson walks over from the CCTV monitors and greets everyone with his most dashing smile. “Nayeon, Mina,” he says, “long time no see.” He pulls them both into quick hugs, then turns his attention to Yerim. “This must be the fake-daughter. It’s nice to meet you…”

“Yerim,” Yerim replies, then gives his hand a shake. She looks around and mouths _wow._ “This place is huge.”

Jackson entertains them while Tzuyu retrieves the good from the gun vault, asking, “Would you ladies like some drinks? We’ve got some beer in the fridge, if you’re not too fancy for that.” Nayeon and Mina shrug—why not, right?—so he fetches them two cans of beer from the fridge and says, “Sorry, Yerim, just apple juice for you,” handing Yerim a juice box. Yerim gladly takes it anyway.

“I take it you won’t be here in Beijing for long,” Jackson says, cracking open a beer for himself. “Jia noona was hoping to catch up with you guys while you were here, but she’s got a lot on her plate right now with that case she’s been working on for the past two months.”

“Maybe next time,” Mina replies, “or after we drop off Yerim at Hong Kong.”

Nayeon shrugs, taking a sip of her beer. “Yeah, I think we can sneak in a round trip back here and do a raincheck on that.”

Jackson’s eyes flicker to Yerim, who’s busy with the PS4. It’s mostly just aimless (and confused) button-pressing, by the looks of it, but she seems entertained all the same. He leans in closer to Mina and Nayeon and asks, “How is she? I don’t know _all_ the details of the story, but I do know enough to know whatever she’s been through has been pretty damn rough.”

“She's handling things surprisingly well,” Nayeon whispers back, “or at least better than we expected she would. The trip itself seems to be keeping her mind off of… well, everything.”

Jackson purses his lips. “I mean, if you really think about it… after living her entire life the way she did, what's a little cross-country road trip with two field agents acting as your moms got on whatever else she's seen and been through, right?”

Mina looks like she's going to scold him but in the end is unable to. It gets Nayeon thinking, too. It makes her sad to admit that Jackson has a point.

Tzuyu comes back with a duffel bag in hand, calling for Mina and Nayeon to head over to the living room-slash-impromptu planning station. Yerim watches curiously as Tzuyu clear the table, neatly placing down the guns and knives for Mina and Nayeon to pick from. This is like opening gifts on Christmas Eve for Nayeon, trigger-happy bastard that she is, but a small part of her deflates when she sees the offerings are mostly handguns for concealed carry. Which is fair, of course: their primary objective was to get Yerim to Hong Kong safely and as discreetly as possible, leaving little to no bloody messes in their wake. Still, she’d hoped there would be a rifle or two here. Maybe a few grenades. She doesn’t know how she’s going to sneak a rocket launcher into a family-friendly high speed train but by God, would she try.

Tzuyu chuckles, easily sensing Nayeon’s disappointment. “Sorry unnie,” she placates, “none of the fun stuff for now. This _is_ supposed to be a covert mission, after all… the operative word being ‘supposed’. You just naturally attract disaster.”

Nayeon grumbles, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. So I can be a little… messy.”

“I don’t think ‘messy’ even cuts it,” Jackson laughs. “I heard about what happened at your last apartment. You know, when you got ‘evicted’. I can think of a lot of words to describe what you did there, but ‘messy’ wouldn’t even be able to capture the _magnitude_ of it all.”

“I think _‘flamboyant’_ is a pretty good way to put it,” Mina offers, clearly enjoying this shitfest against Nayeon. “She’s got such a flair for dramatics, it honestly never fails to amaze me.”

“Okay, okay!” Nayeon holds both her hands up in defeat. “Geez, at least be considerate of the _child_ with us.”

Yerim doesn’t seem the least bit bothered, though, instead eyeing the guns quietly. She doesn’t show any discomfort around them but neither does she show the same excitement she’s expressed over everything else she’s seen so far in their trip. Mina gently cautions her to be careful around the guns and not to touch them or play with them or anything reckless like that, and Yerim slinks away without so much as a word.

Nayeon takes a different approach. As she checks out the guns, she asks Yerim, “Hey, kid. You ever fire a gun before?”

Mina looks like she’s about to _explode_ (an unintended but very much appreciated side effect) but Yerim answers, “No, I haven’t.”

“If we have time at all,” Nayeon continues, picking out another gun and getting a good feel of it, “maybe I’ll teach you how to.”

“You will?” Yerim gasps. Nayeon can sense a reluctant kind of excitement from her, and curiosity. Always curiosity. It’s become so synonymous with the young girl at this point.

“Yeah,” Nayeon replies simultaneously as Mina snaps, steam practically billowing out of her ears, “No you _won’t_.”

Nayeon rolls her eyes and groans, “God, you’ve really got a stick up your ass, huh?”

“I said no, and that’s final,” Mina says more firmly this time.

“Fine,” Nayeon concedes, but when she turns back to Yerim, she whispers with a wink, “Maybe no guns then, but I can teach you some really sick knife tricks.” It earns her a kick on the shin from Mina.

In the end, Nayeon picks out two SIG P229’s and Mina chooses two Glock 26's for herself. Though roughly the same size, the P229 is significantly heavier than the polymer-framed Glock. Nayeon didn’t mind that extra weight so much; in fact, she preferred it. She liked really getting a _feel_ of her gun and though she had no qualms with the Glock—it didn’t earn its title as one of the most reliable handguns in the world for nothing, and on several occasions the only thing that stood between her and certain death was a Glock—she wanted something that had a little more heft to it.

After they place their dibs on guns, Nayeon picks out some knives, extra magazines, knife sheaths, a suppressor and a waistband holster. Mina picks out the rest of her gear as well and when they’re all done, they place everything inside the duffel bag. Security at the Coté Cour wasn’t too tight, so they’d have no problem bringing these items back inside with them.

“Why don’t you stay a while?” Jackson suggests after they’ve packed everything up. “You’ve got a lot of time to spare anyway until you have to leave for Xi’An and we’ve got a _lot_ of leftover cake in the fridge.”

Yerim’s ears perk up at that. “Cake?”

“That _does_ sound tempting,” Mina nods along. She looks over at Nayeon to get her say and when Nayeon just shrugs, she says to Jackson, “Alright, let’s have us that cake.”

While Mina and Yerim follow jackson back to the kitchen area, Tzuyu lightly tugs on Nayeon’s arm, pulling her back. Nayeon raises a brow questioningly but Tzuyu only cryptically says with an equally cryptic smile, “So.”

Nayeon frowns, now thoroughly confused. “So…?”

Tzuyu eyes dart to Mina then back at Nayeon. A dimple creases on her cheek with the crooked smile that tugs on her lips. _“So.”_

“Fuck’s sake—”

Tzuyu laughs at the look on Nayeon’s face. “Come on, unnie, I was just checking up on you!”

“Yeah, we’ll I’ve _had it_ with people checking up on me,” Nayeon replies stubbornly. “First Jihyo, and now even you… there’s nothing for you to check up on. _I’m fine._ What’s in the past is in the past.”

“Oh, unnie,” Tzuyu sighs, tired but fond. When Nayeon opens her mouth to further insist that  she is okay, _thank you very much,_ Tzuyu holds up both her hands and says, “Relax, I’m not going to lecture you on, you know, how you live your life or whatever. That’s Jihyo unnie’s job, not mine. _But_ that doesn’t mean I can’t check up on my favorite unnie, right?”

Nayeon snorts, “You say that about _all_ your unnies. Who was your favorite last week, hm? Jeongyeon?”

“It was Sana unnie, actually.” Taking on a more serious tone, Tzuyu says, “Seriously, though. I’m here for you if you need anything; a shoulder to cry on, watch B-grade romcoms with, all of that stuff. You know that, right?”

It melts Nayeon’s heart, obviously, and tears down her defenses. For all of her mischief and playfulness, Tzuyu’s always been a really good kid deep down. Nayeon can’t get herself to even pretend to be mad that Tzuyu’s still pushing this topic when Tzuyu’s still every bit a baby to her, just with the body of a five-foot-eight twenty-something woman.

“Yeah, I know, I know,” Nayeon murmurs. She lightly claps Tzuyu on the shoulder. “I appreciate it, I really do, but you’ve got nothing to worry about. ‘Kay? It’s… it’s all in the past now.”

Tzuyu’s eyes flicker to Mina again. She pays no mind to Tzuyu or Nayeon, busy laughing over something Jackson’s said while Yerim slides another slice of cake onto her plate. “Is everything okay with Mina unnie?” Tzuyu asks cautiously.

“It’s…” Nayeon purses her lips. “It is what it is.”

“That doesn’t sound very promising.”

“It doesn’t have to be. It’s enough to make us not claw each other’s faces out in front of the kid.”

“But you’d do it if Yerim _weren’t_ looking?”

“Without hesitation.”

Tzuyu smiles, but Nayeon can still see she’s worried. “I’m not gonna badger you about it if you don’t want to talk about it, and it’s pretty clear you don’t,” she tells Nayeon, “but… I don’t know. I guess I just can’t help but worry when I know how Prague took a toll on you—the _both_ of you, but you especially.”

“Told you, didn’t I? You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Nayeon reassures Tzuyu, though it’s starting to feel like she’s trying to convince herself she’s doing fine. Everyone else seems to think the latter is the case, Jihyo most especially. If Tzuyu thinks the same then at least the has the decency to not be so loud and in Nayeon’s face about it.

"Promise you'll sort it out with Mina unnie?" Tzuyu even holds out her pinky. Nayeon can't believe Tzuyu is really gonna make her _pinky promise_ on this. " _Unnie._ "

"Yeah, okay. Fine—" Nayeon hooks her pinky finger around Tzuyu's. "There. Stop bugging me about it already. Just because you're taller than me that doesn't give you the right to boss me around, kid."

Tzuyu looks down at Nayeon’s hand and raises a brow at the wedding band, which Nayeon’s almost completely forgotten about (or she’s tried her best not to think about it so much). She laughs, “ _Wow_ , you’ve really gotten in character for this, huh?”

“It was _her_ idea, not mine,” Nayeon grumbles, face heating up as snatches her hand out of Tzuyu’s grip. Tzuyu looks like she’s going to tease her some more so she hisses, “I said _drop it_.”

“Hey!” Jackson calls. “Better come here now before this little monster over here”—he gestures to Yerim, who grins a who-me smile, caught red-handed in the middle of wolfing down another slice—“finishes all the cake.”

Mina finally looks their way, eyes falling instantly on Nayeon. She regards her with curiosity and something else Nayeon can’t quite put a finger on, but whatever it is gives Nayeon the feeling that Mina knows exactly what she and Tzuyu were just talking about.

Nayeon clears her throat, avoiding Mina’s gaze, and responds, “Tzuyu and I were just discussing the logistics of sneaking a rocket launcher past the security and into the train later.”

Jackson places a slice of cake each on two plates, one for Nayeon and one for Tzuyu, as he says, “Rocket launcher? Didn’t Jia noona bring that with her?”

"What on  _earth_ would she need a rocket launcher for?" Nayeon asks, and Tzuyu just laughs, "It's a long,  _long_ story, unnie."

After the cake has been had and they've all properly caught up with each other, Tzuyu drops them back off at the Coté Cour, giving each of them a kiss on the cheek and wishing them safe travels. "I'm just a call away if you need anything," she says before she hits the gas and disappears out of their view.

Yerim watches with fascination as Mina and Nayeon put on their holsters, and she looks just as amazed when they show her how easy it is to conceal the guns after they change into different, significantly looser clothes. "That's one of the dangers of it too," Nayeon explains to Yerim as Mina fixes a knife sheath onto the back of Nayeon's belt. She mumbles thanks when Mina is done. "There are a lot of bad people out there, and there are just as many idiots who think they need to go walking around with a gun when they shouldn't even be allowed near one."

"Look at you," Mina chuckles, "actually making sense."

Nayeon sheaths two more knives in her boots. "Don't test it, Myoui."

"Test what? Your intelligence?"

Yerim's lip twitches but she bites back the smile about to settle on her lips, apparently feeling bad that she found Mina's jab at Nayeon's intelligence funny.

"Guess I won't be teaching you some knife tricks after all," Nayeon tells Yerim, and the young girl gasps, "No. I'm sorry, unnie. I won't laugh next time, I promise!"

"Isn't it uncomfortable to walk around with the guns on you, though?" Yerim asks later on when they're all lying on the bed, food coma and sugar crash kicking in simultaneously. They still had two hours to themselves before they had to leave for Xi'An, so they could afford a quick nap. Mina's set an alarm already. "Doesn't it feel a little bulky or something?"

"It's definitely not comfortable enough that you don't notice it's there or that you have two guns strapped onto your body," Mina replies, amused by Yerim's bewilderment, "but you get used to it. The companies making them have also made lots of improvements in making them less of a chore to wear, at the very least."

Yerim gives herself a moment to process that. Then she asks, "Can you sleep in them? Or have you?"

"A bunch of times," Nayeon answers this time. "It's like Mina said: they're not the most comfortable but you get used to it eventually. It's not unusual for people like us to sleep in the least desirable places, fully-armed and ready-to-go."

"That doesn't sound very comfortable," Yerim concludes for herself.

"It is not," Nayeon affirms.

"You know what is comfortable? This bed," Mina says, punctuating her sentence with a yawn. She wiggles herself into a more comfortable position.

Nayeon wraps her arms around a pillow, resting her cheek against it as she mumbles in agreement, "That it is." Her eyes flutter shut and it takes only a few more seconds before she's knocked out cold.

* * *

She wakes up a little over an hour later to Yerim gently shaking her shoulder. Nayeon rubs her gummy eyes and croaks out, "I don't know what they put in that cake to knock me out the way it did, but goddamn."

"Sugar," Mina replies, just as groggy as Nayeon is, "that's what."

Nayeon rolls her eyes. "Thanks. Never would have guessed."

"You're welcome," Mina says magnanimously.

They pack up the last of their things left lying around in the room—which is not a lot, really; their bags were hardly opened the entire time they've been here—before they head to the concierge to finally check out.

Nayeon keeps Yerim close to her as Mina takes care of their bill, allowing herself a lopsided smile when the receptionist looks surprised to see the amount of cash Mina has on hand. It's not all of it, obviously, but it's still a lot. While the payment is being processed, Nayeon asks in Mandarin, "Oh, by the way: what are good places to check out in Xi'An?" She puts on her most amicable and motherly smile as she explains, "We didn't get to do much sightseeing today, you see, but we promised our daughter here that we'd fix that in Xi'An."

Mina arches a brow at Nayeon but lets the conversation play itself out.

"The Terracotta Warriors are a must-see, definitely," the receptionist replies, then proceeds to name a few other sites and activities they could try out if they had the time to spare. After, she pauses for a moment and tells Nayeon, "Mrs. Park, your Chinese is very good."

"I lived here for a few years in my childhood," Nayeon lies for the shits and giggles.

Much to her surprise, however, the receptionist does not leave the conversation at that. Her eyes light up and she asks, "Really? Where did you live?"

Nayeon taps her fingers on the counter top. Says, "I'm not very comfortable disclosing that information."

The receptionist blinks then her face flushes. "Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. Park, I—"

"It's okay," Mina interjects, also in fluent Mandarin. She throws in a laugh for good measure. "My wife is just a very private person, is all," she says, then places her hand over Nayeon's. She smiles. "Isn't that right, honey?"

Nayeon has to stop herself from yanking her hand away. It burns where her skin meets Mina's, and the air in her lungs has run paper thin, but she forces her mouth into a smile. "Yeah, that's exactly what I am," she grits through her teeth. "Very private person. Yup."

"What was that about?" Yerim asks when they're inside a cab on the way to the station. She looks worried.

"It's nothing," Mina reassures her. "Just a bit of an awkward situation."

Yerim looks back and forth between Mina and Nayeon, then asks, "Was it because you're both girls?"

Nayeon and Mina stare at each other, poleaxed. That was the last thing Nayeon expected Yerim to ask. They both open their mouths to say something but they end up with nothing.

Yerim seems just as surprised, but her surprise is aimed more at _their_ surprise. Embarrassed, she explains to them, "I didn't mean it in a bad way, I—I just meant that there are people who don't like it when a woman loves another woman or a man loves another man. But I don't think it's bad. It's just two people who love each other, so why should it be seen as bad, right? It's just like how Papa and Mama loved each other."

Nayeon's chest—her _heart_ —feel like... like... It feels like the inside of a lava cake, all molten and warm and soft. Maybe that isn't the best comparison for the thing Nayeon is feeling right now, but it doesn't matter. She pulls Yerim to her side and affectionately ruffles her hair. "You're a good kid, you know that?" she says, and it breaks her heart a little too. Why did such a good kid have to suffer all of this? Why did such a good kid have to see all the cruelty of this world, and be victim to it?

"Don't worry, Yerim, it wasn't anything like that," Mina explains, still touched. "Nayeon just told the receptionist that she lived here for a few years and the receptionist was just too… chatty."

"In my defense I didn't think the details that far," Nayeon says. "I just said what I said for the hell of it."

Mina rolls her eyes. "You could have just said thank you."

"Now where's the fun in _that?_ "

Tzuyu had advised them to be at the railway station at least an hour before boarding, to pick up their tickets and to give themselves time to navigate the massive station in case they get lost. Yerim stays close to Nayeon, fingers gripping onto the sleeve of her jacket. Nayeon, meanwhile, scans the area for anything suspicious or anyone following their trail. It's times like this that she becomes more acutely aware of the guns hidden underneath her clothes, their weight pressing hard against her skin through the fabric of the holster. Nayeon guides Yerim to her left side so in case of emergency, she can easily reach for her gun with her right hand.

They hang back while Mina lines up at the ticket window, and she looks back to check on them from time to time. Nayeon maintains her protective grip on Yerim’s shoulder, eyes scanning their surroundings and all the faces that pass by. There are a number of people walking towards their direction, but one man in particular seems to be walking towards _them_.

“Get behind me,” Nayeon whispers to Yerim, who follows her instruction immediately.

Nayeon’s already thought of five different ways she can take down this guy by the time he’s standing in front of her and he says in English, “I’m so sorry to bother you, but I’m a little lost,” and smiles sheepishly at her. When Nayeon doesn’t say anything, still too busy trying to get a read on him, he stammers, “O-oh, sorry, I was just wondering if you know where Gate 4 is? I’ve been lost for an hour now.”

Nayeon reaches to the small of her back, fingers grazing the handle of the knife sheathed there. He’s close enough that she can land a few stabs or, if she’s feeling especially flamboyant, slit his throat with a quick swipe of her knife. “Sorry,” she replies, forcing a smile, “I don’t know either. Maybe there’s a guard around that you can ask for directions.”

The man looks crestfallen and Nayeon thinks he’s finally going to leave, but suddenly he continues on to lament, “I’m sorry… you’re the only person I’ve bumped into here that speaks English too, and it’s been _so_ difficult getting around here. This place is huge!”

 _Christ on a fucking stick_ , Nayeon groans internally. Her cheeks are straining from holding her smile as she says, “That it is, and I’m sorry to hear that.” She looks around, _away_ from the man to make it known she wants him to get the fuck out of her face already, and then suggests, “Maybe you can ask one of the concierges over there at the ticket booths.”

“Oh! Alright, thank you,” the man says. Nayeon’s about to breathe a sigh of relief when he takes notice of Yerim peeking out from behind Nayeon’s back. He smiles and asks, “Is this your daughter?”

“Yes,” Nayeon replies tersely. This time, Nayeon curls her fingers around the handle of the knife. There’s no knowing for certain if this man is in fact someone that was sent to take Yerim, but Nayeon’s not going to take any chances now that he’s actually asked about her.

“I have a daughter too,” he says, “maybe about your daughter’s age.”

“Really?” Nayeon inches the knife slowly out of its sheath as she grits out, “That’s lovely.” A few quick stabs will be easier to get away with than a slit throat, even though she does prefer the theatrics of the latter much better. The guards aren’t paying any attention to them, and the nearest CCTV camera isn’t angled directly towards them either. This should be fairly easy to deal with and—

“Honey?” Mina’s voice snaps Nayeon back to reality. Mina walks towards them, tickets in hand and their passports in hand; she looks first between Nayeon and the man, then at Nayeon’s hand that she knows is gripping onto her knife, and then finally at the man. She smiles but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Is everything okay here?” she asks him in English.

The man flushes, embarrassed. “I was just asking for directions,” he explains to Mina. He shrinks under her gaze but he tries to laugh off his nerves. “I, um, really should be going,” he says in the end, “but thank you so much for your help.”

Mina and Nayeon watch him as he walks away, still clearly lost and stumbling his way through the sprawling, airport-like railway station. When he’s well out of their sight, Mina turns back to Nayeon and Yerim and asks, concerned, “He wasn’t harassing you or anything, was he?”

"No," Nayeon says. "But if he did, you know I would have broken his face in."

"Did he want anything with Yerim?” Mina presses. “There was something extremely off about his demeanor, and I don’t think it has anything to do with travel jitters.”

“I had it under control,” is all Nayeon replies, taking her hand away from the knife at the small of her back. Yerim steps out from behind her too.

Mina raises a brow. “You were going to slit that man’s throat out in public, in front of hundreds of people. Is that your definition of ‘under control’?”

“I was going to _stab_ him,” Nayeon corrects, “excuse you.” She picks up their bags from the floor, hands Mina hers, and says, “I believe we have a train to catch, yes?”

“You’re unbelievable,” Mina sighs, shaking her head, but there’s a hint of a smile on her face. “Okay, come along now, kids.”

The platforms are crowded with passengers waiting to hop inside the train. Yerim holds onto Nayeon’s hand as they squeeze their way past the swarm of bodies. Nayeon stays more alert now, especially after that little run-in with the man from earlier. Though there’s no conclusive evidence that he _was_ in fact after Yerim, Nayeon isn’t taking her chances with anyone else here—and _boy_ was there a lot of people, which means a _lot_ of potential threats and assailants.

Nayeon becomes more hyper-aware of her surroundings, every pair of eyes that she catches looking their way, every minute movement of a person’s hands. She knows whoever will be following them won’t be too reckless about it. Just like Mina and Nayeon, they wouldn’t want to attract too much attention; just get in, get Yerim, and get out. Kill Mina and Nayeon if they have to (and knowing how iron-willed the both of them are, Nayeon is certain the only way they _can_ get Yerim is by killing Nayeon and Mina). Things could get ugly any second.

“And why exactly couldn’t we have just driven ourselves there?” Nayeon asks Mina in a whisper.

“Jihyo’s orders, remember?” Mina replies unhelpfully, but the way she worries her lips tells Nayeon that she probably shares her sentiments. “Besides, this is the fastest way to get from here to there. By train we’d get to Xi’An in twelve hours _and_ we get to catch some sleep. Can’t say the same if we had to drive ourselves there.”

“Fair point,” Nayeon sighs. She tugs Yerim closer to her when a woman brusquely pushes her aside to get to wherever the hell she’s in such a rush to get to. “Watch it,” Nayeon grumbles to her in Mandarin, but the woman doesn’t even spare Nayeon a glance, much less an apology. Turning back Mina, Nayeon says, “I fucking hate people.”

“Language,” Mina scolds lightly. “I guess one thing slightly favorable about this arrangement is that it would be difficult to start shit once we’re inside and in transit.”

 _Language, she said_ . “Yeah, but the catch is that we’re pretty much stuck in there for the next twelve hours so if something _does_ happen, there’s no weaseling out way out of it.”

Mina quirks her lips. She echoes Nayeon’s words: “Fair point.”

Finally, they’re allowed to start boarding the train. Nayeon tightens her grip around Yerim’s hand. “You ready?” she asks Yerim. It’s an odd question, she realizes belatedly. She knows she’s definitely not asking the young girl if she’s ready to _board a train,_ that’s for sure. Maybe the question is more for herself than it is for Yerim.

Was she ready? Nayeon has no definitive answer to that. She looks down at Yerim, at her hand in Nayeon’s. Whatever the case and whatever the hell happens, they’d have to get through Nayeon first if they wanted to get Yerim, except there’s no way in hell Nayeon would ever let them. She’d take them all to hell with her first before they even get to lay a finger on Yerim.

Yerim smiles back at Nayeon and something about it soothes Nayeon’s nerves. _We’ll be fine_ , Nayeon thinks, slightly more convinced by the thought this time. She looks over at Mina, who's fishing their tickets and passports out of her bag, and an even greater wave of relief washes over her. Or, maybe not relief exactly, but  _reassurance_. This isn't their first rodeo, and if experience has taught her anything, it's that despite everything—despite all the bickering, all the misunderstandings,  _everything_ —Nayeon's got nothing to worry about with Mina by her side. Hell and all its forces could come knocking on their door for all she cares; no one else has Nayeon's back in a fight the way Mina does, fuck hell and everyone in it. Not even _Prague_ could take that away and, just this once, Nayeon allows herself to find comfort in that.

* * *

They end up sharing a room with a Chinese local. Like the hallways of the carriage, the room is compact but not uncomfortable, though Nayeon could do with more room to move around. She and Mina take the upper berths while Yerim and the Chinese local, a genial old woman, take the lower berths. An attendant passes by their room with the snacks trolley, and Mina buys all of them, the old woman included, bottled tea drinks.

“If you want to go to the bathroom,” Nayeon tells Yerim, “it’s outside, so just tell us and one of us will accompany you.” She’d done a quick survey of the train, checking for any sketchy faces or just anything generally unusual. “Don’t go out on your own, okay? Wake us up if you have to.”

Yerim nods, taking more sips of her tea. She’s back to playing _Stardew Valley_ , tapping and swiping away on her iPad and doing whatever it is you’re supposed to do in this game. She seems to be having a blast, though, if the way she’s kicking her feet around and the little shimmies of her shoulders are any indication.

Mina, meanwhile, is chatting up the old lady they’re rooming with for the next twelve-ish hours. The old lady—Mrs. Zhang, that’s her name—looks absolutely enamored with Mina, of course. Mina’s like catnip to old people, easy to win their affections and trust. True enough, Mrs. Zhang already treats Mina like she would her own granddaughter.

“I’m visiting my family in Weinan,” Mrs. Zhang explains to Mina, who listens intently (if this is all an act, then it’s a very convincing one, though Nayeon knows Mina has a soft spot for old people). Mrs. Zhang motions to Nayeon and Yerim. “What about you? What are your plans?”

“We’re on a small family trip,” Mina replies amicably, turning to face Nayeon. “My wife and I are always so busy with work, and we’ve been promising our daughter Yejin for a long time now that we’d go on a trip together. Now’s the only time we’ve had the chance to take a break, and we figured why not visit China? Your country is so rich in culture, history and heritage, so it only felt like a natural choice.”

Nayeon has half the mind to roll her eyes. Mina can say whatever she wants but she knows that Mina wants to make life a living hell for her in every way conceivable, and right now the most effective way to achieve that goal is to constantly rub it in Nayeon’s face that they’re supposed to be married. It’s almost sickening how Mrs. Zhang just eats that shit up, clearly pleased with the comments Mina made about China. They’re not wrong in any way whatsoever; it’s more the fact that Mina’s a lying and irritating piece of shit that makes Nayeon want to rip the wedding band off her finger and chuck it at Mina’s equally as irritating face.

“You make for such a beautiful couple,” Mrs. Zhang coos, taking both Mina and Nayeon aback. “How long have you been married?”

 _Ah, shit_ , Nayeon thinks, sharing a panicked glance with Mina, who’s still stuck on the ‘beautiful couple’ comment. Nayeon clears her throat and lies, “We’re, uh, celebrating our sixth anniversary next… week.” She sucks her teeth. Smiles again. “Yeah, so, uh, that’s another reason we’re here. We wanted to celebrate it somewhere special _and_ spend some quality time with Yejin.”

Mina looks mouths _six years?!_ while Mrs. Zhang happily remarks, “That’s so lovely! My husband and I were married for over thirty years before he passed away five years ago”— _Well, that took a very depressing turn_ , Nayeon thinks—“and even though we had our fair share of arguments and misunderstandings, I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else but him, you know?”

It’s like a knife’s been twisted in Nayeon’s chest. _Oh._

Before Nayeon can even fully process what’s going on, the words are already spilling—no, _bleeding_ —out of her mouth: “Definitely. All it took was one look at Jihyun to know she was the one for me. Which is cheesy, I know, but there couldn’t have been anyone else, you know? It could only ever be her.” She’s looking at Mina now and says around the lump in her throat, “And, well, I wouldn’t have it any other way, arguments and misunderstandings and all.”

Mina works her jaw, not in an angry way but in the way that she normally does when she’s trying to work her way through her emotions, whatever those emotions might be. The expression that rests on her face is hard to decipher but her gaze on Nayeon is heavy, loaded. It makes Nayeon want to squirm, makes her skin crawl, makes her brain short circuit altogether.

Nayeon clears her throat too loud and laughs, “Whew! That was—” She laughs some more, hysterically and in a bit of a panic. “Yeah, sorry, I just—I get a little carried away with the sap sometimes and—”

Mina joins in on the awkward laughter, says, “Gosh, Hyunjung, you’re so cheesy!” Her voice is an octave too shrill for comfort, a clear sign she’s panicking every bit as Nayeon is. It makes Nayeon laugh, then Mina laughs some more, and soon there’s just too much laughing going around for this to be anywhere near normal. Mrs. Zhang, bless her heart, doesn’t read the room at all and remains absolutely delighted. Yerim has no choice but to watch everything unfold, utterly and hopelessly confused.

When Mrs. Zhang leaves to go to the washroom, Yerim asks, “What was that about?”

“I cracked a really funny joke,” Nayeon replies as she moves up to her bed, looking anywhere but at Mina. Mina avoids Nayeon’s eyes as well as she silently scoots over to Yerim’s bed. Nayeon fishes her phone out of her pocket just so she has something ( _anything_ ) else to look at. “It was so funny we couldn’t stop laughing for, like, five minutes straight.”

Yerim asks Mina, “ _Was_ it funny?”

“I laughed to save her ego,” Mina replies.

Nayeon has no idea which she’s more offended about: Yerim doubting her comedic genius or Mina… well, being Mina. It’s probably the former, which is about as treacherous a betrayal as the Ides of March. _Et tu, Yerim?_

“Mrs. Zhang seems really nice, though,” Yerim says. “Or at least she seems harmless compared to that really creepy guy earlier…”

“She’s very progressive for a fossil,” Nayeon concedes. It surprises her when Mina doesn’t chastise her. She quietly waits for a few more seconds to pass, but still Mina doesn’t say anything. “I guess not _all_ Baby Boomers have to be eradicated after all,” Nayeon tries again, but all Mina affords her is a soft, disapproving hum.

Nayeon’s heart sinks, much to her annoyance. _Oh._

To say she’s mortified would be an understatement. Nayeon knows she can be tactless and impulsive, but _that_ earlier… she has no idea what to make of that. No idea why she let those words spill out of her mouth, no idea why she even felt anything at all to make her do something so unbelievably stupid. It’s...it’s all too confusing and irritating and Nayeon wishes she could just bash her head into the wall multiple times or have the earth swallow her whole or fling herself right off the train. She’s done that before—jump out of a moving train, that is—and she landed more or less in one piece, so what’s to stop her from doing that now?

Nayeon thinks back to her conversation with Jihyo. _It’s been three years,_ she’d said.

Three years...

Three years feels like a long time until you’re literally face to face with your problem. It feels like ample enough time to move on from wounds that haven’t quite healed and to let go of unnecessary sentiments you’re still holding onto for whatever reason. It _should_ be ample enough time to pick yourself back up, dust yourself off and carry on forward; _always_ forward and far, far away from whatever is behind you now. It’s enough time to make you think you’ve made progress, that you’ve finally moved on, until one day you’re stuck in your best friend-slash-boss’ office with the problem you’ve been running away from all those three, long years. And you’re sat there, being told you’re going to be pretend-married to each other for the sake of a child that’s also running away from her problems… just not in the same cowardly way you are.

In truth, three years is not much in the grand scheme of things. It sure isn’t worth shit when Mina’s right in front of Nayeon and she’s still—Nayeon’s almost too scared to even entertain the thought— _she’s still_ —

 _Fuck it_ , Nayeon thinks, grinding her jaw stubbornly, angrily. _Fuck it. Fuck it to hell and back and beyond that too._

She’s not going to lose sleep over this.

(...but that’s a lie; that’s three years’ worth of sleep already down the drain for Nayeon and by the looks of it, she’s going to be losing a lot more.)

The room is quiet save for the sounds coming from Yerim’s game. It’s enough to keep Nayeon from being consumed by her thoughts, which are so, _so_ loud, but it acts as a double-edged sword as well because it draws her attention to Yerim and Mina. It only last a few moments, but it’s enough to make Nayeon feel someone’s just hit her with a road roller.

Although Mina is speaking to Yerim softly, Nayeon can hear her making suggestions here and there. She doesn’t look like one, but Mina’s always been an avid gamer, investing large parts of her salary into her gaming equipment and all the newest games she could get her hands on. It only felt natural that Mina would try to bond with Yerim through one of the thing she knows and loves best (practically bribing her with expensive clothes aside).

Nayeon wonders what Mina sees in Yerim that makes her heart ache for her the way it does. It’s one thing to sympathize with the young girl’s situation (any decent, not-heartless person would), but Nayeon knows Mina well enough to know that there’s something else that’s making her go an extra mile for the kid, something beyond just sympathy and beyond her role in this mission.

Maybe Mina sees a bit of herself in Yerim. If anyone would know what it’s like to suffer the consequences of someone else’s life, it would have to be Mina. Many would consider Mina to be lucky, born into wealth and into a political family no less, but Nayeon knows just how much heartache it’s caused Mina.

Though everyone knows about her high profile background (politician dad that’s a member of the LDP, her maternal grandfather being one of the biggest tycoons in Japan, blah blah), only a select few, Nayeon included, know that Mina and her father were generally _never_ on good terms with each other. Mina didn’t agree with his politics, for one, but the final blow was when he forced her to break up with her then girlfriend in fear that the news would spread rumors about her—about the family, about _him_ —like wildfire and it would ruin his rep with the public. He had plans to marry her off to the son of a political ally, told her that this whole bisexuality thing was just a phase, told her a _lot_ of things. She left Japan some time after that incident and cut off ties with her family with the occasional exception of her mother.

Although their predicaments are drastically different, looking at from that perspective, Nayeon can understand why Mina would be as soft as she is for Yerim. It does things to Nayeon’s already mangled heart.

Mrs. Zhang comes back a few minutes later, saying something about how she had to wait long because the person in the washroom was taking forever. Mina entertains her, naturally, and they get to talking again, this time thankfully not about her and Nayeon’s (fake) marriage our their (fake) daughter. Instead, Mina talks about her (fake) job and Mrs. Zhang spends the rest of the time reminiscing.

Apparently having had her fill of talking about how things were back in her day, Mrs. Zhang calls it a night. Shortly after, Yerim goes to sleep too and Mina turns off the lights. Nayeon’s already comfortably tucked underneath her blanket as she listens to Mina’s muffled footsteps and movements in the dark. Nayeon keeps her eyes focused on some dark point above her, waiting for sleep to come or for her exhaustion to catch up with her. A few more moments of complete silence pass when Mina says with her voice just barely above a whisper, “Good night, Nayeon.”

 _Good night, Mina_ , Nayeon thinks but doesn’t say. She squeezes her eyes shut and turns away.

* * *

The night is cold enough to burn. The wind, the snow where she lies—it’s so cold it _burns_ where winter’s fingertips touch her skin. Through her hazy vision and with the last of her strength, she watches as the Prague sky is colored with fireworks left and right; everywhere, as far as her eyes can see. It’s New Year’s Eve and Nayeon’s lying in the snow, maybe only a few more breaths until she breathes her last. She reaches down to touch the spot where she’d been shot. Something warm trickles onto her fingers. Blood. It’s red where her blood seeps into the snow.

_“Nayeon.”_

Huh.

It’s Mina’s voice. _Mina._ This doesn’t seem right. Mina didn’t come back for her; this memory is still fresh in Nayeon’s mind. So why was she—

 _“Nayeon,”_ Mina repeats. There’s no mistaking it now. Nayeon tries to say something to Mina, anything, but she’s far too weak now to even utter a word. The gunshot wound aches and burns and her vision has gone so blurry she can barely make out Mina’s face. The fireworks continue on above them, a cruel reminder that Nayeon could die now and the world wouldn’t cease to turn for her. _“Nayeon,”_ Mina says again, more urgent this time. _“Hey, do you hear me? Nayeon?”_

Nayeon wonders what made Mina change her mind this time. Or maybe she got it wrong all along; maybe Mina _did_ come back for her, and she just had no recollection of it.

 _“Nayeon,”_ comes Mina’s voice again. “ _Wake up. WAKE UP!”_

Nayeon jolts upright and knocks her forehead hard against Mina’s face, and not even on purpose this time. She blinks heavily, massaging her aching forehead, and finally is awake enough to realize that Mina is hovering over her, her hips bracketed by Mina’s legs. Nayeon frowns at Mina’s face through the dark. _Was_ she awake, or did her previous dream suddenly switch gears and turn into… some kind of sex dream? If it _is_ one, it’s neither fun nor sexy. The only thing that convinces her that she is, in fact, awake is that the throbbing on her forehead is far too real for this to be a dream, and Mina’s hissing, “Nayeon, what the fuck!” at her.

“What do you mean ‘what the fuck’?” Nayeon counters, propping herself up on her elbows. She almost instantly regrets it because it forces Mina up to a sort of sitting, _straddling_ position. Nayeon feels heat rise up her neck to her face but she ignores it (or at least she tries her best to) and continues, “ _You’re_ the one doing whatever the _fuck_ it is you’re doing. What the fuck _are_ you doing and what time is it?”

“Three-ish,” Mina replies, “but that’s not important right now.”

“How is it not important right now? It is _three in the morning_ and you—”

Mina shushes Nayeon by placing a finger on her lips. Nayeon begins to protest but Mina whispers, _“Listen.”_

They remain completely still and Nayeon strains her ears to pick up on whatever it is that Mina heard. At first she hears nothing out of the ordinary, especially not over the sound of the train, but then with a little more concentration she finally hears it: outside their room, she hears feet shuffling against the carpeted floor. Her first thought is that this isn’t too bizarre; it could very well just be the attendants going around. But there’s something incredibly off about it too. Her mind might just be making it up but if Nayeon listens hard enough or harder than she already is, she can hear hushed voices outside.

Nayeon turns back to Mina.

“I went outside earlier,” Mina explains as quietly as she can, removing her finger from Nayeon’s lips, “to use the bathroom and all. I noticed this one man, probably from one of the other rooms in this carriage, hanging by near our room. I didn’t think too much of it at first but he was still outside by the time I left the bathroom. He was on his phone, talking to someone.”

“You think he’s after Yerim?” Nayeon asks. She’s _definitely_ awake now.

“Maybe, maybe not, but I’m not risking anything,” Mina replies gravely. “I mean, I know it’s obviously going to be quiet because everyone is presumably asleep and it’s not like there’s much for anyone to do anyway, but this kind of quiet… there’s something off about it. It’s a… a gut feel kind of thing, you know?”

Nayeon thinks about that. “How much are you willing to bet that there must be more of that guy’s buddies in the other rooms on this carriage—and maybe even the other carriages?”

Even in the dark Nayeon can see Mina’s frown. “Anyone can easily pass through the carriages,” Mina mumbles, though Nayeon recognizes this as more of Mina talking to _herself_ than to Nayeon. “There could be any number of them.”

“Yeah, no shit.” Nayeon pauses. "So are you going to get off of me or what?"

"Oh," Mina mumbles, embarrassed. They manage to fit the both of themselves into what little space they have to work with. The footsteps continue on outside.

Nayeon asks, "So, what's our game plan?"

This is going to be a very tight and uncomfortable fight if it gets to that point, and there's nowhere they can really run to inside the train. They're stuck here, for better or worse. It would be fine if it was just her and Mina—they've had their fair share of claustrophobic scuffles—but it's a little harder to do crazy shit now that they have Yerim to worry about too.

Nayeon can practically hear the gears in Mina's head turning as she tries to figure out a different plan, an alternative to 'fight everyone and hopefully get the fuck out of here alive'... not that Nayeon thinks there could possibly be an alternative to it anyway.

"There's not much else we can do," Nayeon says when it looks like Mina's found herself at a dead end. "We can lock ourselves in here but it won't do us much good. They'll find a way to force us out eventually, and in the process we could drag poor Mrs. Zhang into the mess. They won't let her walk out of this one alive, you know that. The best shot we have is to bring the fight to them— _outside_ —instead of locking ourselves in here. Either way, it ends the same way: we're still gonna have to break some faces in."

"I know," Mina mumbles. She purses her lips. Between the two of them, Mina's always been the more… _efficient_ fighter, and much less messy than Nayeon. That isn't to say Mina didn't have her own brand of flamboyance and theatrics, but if she could have her way, things would be dealt with as easy and as quietly as possible. “God. Okay, I guess we don’t have much of a choice, do we?”

They move as quietly as they can. Nayeon tiptoes to Yerim’s bed and gently shakes her by her shoulder, stirring her awake. When Yerima sks her what’s going on Nayeon whispers, “Yerim, I’m gonna need you to hide under the bed. We’ve got… a bit of a situation right now, or we might have one. In case things get messy—and by the looks of it, it will—we need you to stay out of the line of fire as much as possible. Mina and I will handle things. Okay?”

Nayeon feels Yerim’s shoulders tense up but the young girl nods, whispering back, “Okay,” but as she moves to follow Nayeon’s instructions she stops to ask, “What about Mrs. Zhang?”

“I honestly have no idea how to answer that question, kid,” Nayeon replies, helping Yerim squeeze herself under the bed, “but we’ll do our best to make sure nothing happens to her too.”

Mina turns on the lights in their room. It takes a moment for Nayeon’s eyes to adjust to the light, but after they do, she double-checks all of the weapons she has on her. She’s not sure how many of them there might be, but Nayeon hopes she never has to use the guns. For one, it would be the least subtle way to deal with this situation. Too much noise, too much _mess._ And they don’t have a whole lot of space to work with so too many bullets flying around is something Nayeon would rather avoid.

“Should we, you know,” Nayeon says then jerks a thumb at Mrs. Zhang’s direction.

Mina purses her lips. “I mean, we can’t let them see anyone else in this room, much less actually get inside the room.”

“Okay, you go deal with her since you’re, like, best friends for life or whatever.”

“You just _have_ to be a sarcastic piece of shit all the time, huh?”

“You gonna wake up Betty White or what?” Nayeon raises a brow. “Hm?”

Something flickers over Mina’s face, something like a smile, before she catches herself and says, “I don’t even think she’s as old as Betty White, not even _close,”_ then walks past Nayeon towards Mrs. Zhang’s bed. Nayeon allows herself to find entertainment in the old woman’s confusion, which slowly turns to panic, then it becomes a mix of both. Mina continues to calmly explain the situation as best as she can to Mrs. Zhang.

Getting impatient (or really, just bored of the spectacle already), Nayeon walks over and says, point-blank, “Listen, Mrs. Zhang, there may or may not be a bunch of bad people out there right now waiting to tear that door down or drag us out. Whatever the case, we can’t guarantee they’ll let us walk out of this one unscathed. Now, the last thing Mina—”

 _“Mina?!”_ Mrs. Zhang all but shrieks, clearly betrayed. This is exactly why Nayeon hates it when civilians get dragged into their business. There’s just too many questions asked and not enough loopholes to get through said questions.

“—and I want is for you to get hurt, caught in the crossfire.” Nayeon gestures to their room. “As you can see, we don’t have a lot of space to work with here, not a lot to move around, but the best way we can guarantee you won’t get hurt is if you hide under the bed, okay? We’ll make sure they don’t get to lay a finger on you or the kid.”

Mrs. Zhang collects herself first before she stammers, “S-so all of this… the both of you… were you just lying?”

“Yeah,” Nayeon answers, tired of all these questions. “When I said we were married six years, that was a lie. We’ve actually only been married four years.”

Mina looks like she’s only a second away from socking Nayeon in the face.

“And what about the girl? Where—” Mrs. Zhang’s eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets when Yerim awkwardly waves at her from under her bed. _“What’s going on?”_

Nayeon massages her temples. “Look, Mrs. Zhang,” she grits out, “I know this is a very confusing situation for you and I know you’re scared, but I’m gonna need you to just trust us on this one, okay? The four of us: we bonded, yeah? Got that connection, right? So believe me when I say that it would suck _ass_ if you died or even just got hurt on our watch. We’re just trying to keep you out of harm’s way as much as we can.”

Mrs. Zhang presses her lips into a thin line.

“Please?” Mina asks. It comes with an apologetic undertone.

Finally, after only a moment’s hesitation, Mrs. Zhang plays along, trying as best as she can to fit herself underneath the berth. Luckily Mrs. Zhang has a petite frame, so it’s not too difficult.

“Hang back,” Nayeon instructs Mina. "I'm gonna open the door and well, I guess we'll see what happens from there."

"Solid plan," Mina remarks sarcastically, but she stays behind like Nayeon asked her to. In truth, Nayeon didn't really need to explain so much what they had to do. Nayeon charges forward, Mina follows close after.

Mina draws a gun from her holster, eliciting a panicked squeak from Mrs. Zhang, and Nayeon says, "Whoa, there. That's more my thing than yours, and besides, won't it be too, you know…"

"How else am I supposed to cover for you?" Mina replies. She attaches a suppressor onto the gun. "Besides, no matter how we approach this, we're still gonna draw attention to ourselves."

Nayeon rolls her neck and cracks her knuckles. Mina crouches down just enough so she isn’t visible behind Nayeon, gun at the ready. Nayeon looks down at where Yerim is hiding and whispers, “Remember: stay put there.” She pauses, debating over whether or not she should say what she wants to say next, then eventually decides it’s for the better that she does: “And if ever they do get in here and try to get you, fight back. Give them a hard time and _us_ enough time to get to you. Okay?”

Yerim nods meekly in response.

Nayeon’s heart pounds thunderously in her ears as she reaches out to unlock the door. There’s a mix of nervousness and toe-curling, body-trembling adrenaline pumping through her veins. She steadies her breaths, listening to the sounds from outside their room. She hears the distinct sound of something like wheels rolling against the carpeted floor outside; something rickety.

The lock opens with a click and Nayeon slowly slides the door open.

A pair of eyes, wide and surprised and totally unfamiliar, stare back at Nayeon. One of the attendants. Nayeon opens the door a little further, just enough so she and the attendant get an eyeful of each other without Nayeon having to step outside of the room. This would also at least keep everyone else (Mina, especially) from being exposed. If both Nayeon and Mina turn out to be wrong and there was nothing to worry about all along, the least Nayeon can do is make sure that the maybe-innocent attendant isn’t shot to death by accident.

“O-oh,” the attendant mumbles, thrown. She looks like she could be in her early twenties at least, with the nerves of someone who’s just started their first real job. “Um…”

Nayeon gestures to the trolley. Says, “Quite an odd time to be making rounds, don’t you think?” There’s a long, heavy and _very_ awkward pause before Nayeon laughs, “Hey, I was kidding! I’m sorry, that wasn’t—I’m sorry, I didn’t make you uncomfortable or anything, did I?”

The attendant lags for a second before she ends up laughing too, but it’s clear to see she’s still very much shaken. “Yes, it’s, uh,” she starts, then clears her throat. “I’m actually just bringing the trolley back. Carriage seven.”

“I see,” Nayeon murmurs distractedly. A bead of sweat rolls down the attendant’s temple. It’s definitely not because it’s hot in here. She forces a smile again. “I’m sorry, it’s just I’m a very light sleeper and there was so much _noise_ outside our room and it woke me up. People loitering around, I think?”

“Oh,” the attendant says, but her voice trails off. Nayeon catches the way her eyes flicker to her left, at whatever or whoever is there. “I’ll… I can look into that for you, miss…”

“Park, and it’s mis _sus,_ actually.”

“Mrs. Park,” the attendant smiles stiffly. She ducks her head for a moment and throws another glance to the left.

“Say, you aren’t sick or anything, are you?” Nayeon asks, vaguely gesturing at the attendant’s face with her hand. “Noticed you’ve been working up quite a sweat.”

It takes the attendant by surprise but she catches herself more quickly this time, replying, “No, no, I’m—it’s nothing, Mrs. Park. But thank you for asking.” And she does it again, that little, not subtle in any way at all glance before she levels her eyes with Nayeon’s again. “I’d best be going now, Mrs. Park. I’m sorry for rudely interrupting your sleep.”

As the attendant begins to walk away, Nayeon slides the door open a little further and says, “Actually, miss, I think I could use a snack. What stuff do you have?”

Reluctantly, the attendant moves back, knuckles turned white from how hard she's gripping onto the handle of the trolley. She's a nervous wreck, maybe even more so now than she was when Nayeon first laid eyes on her. It doesn't take a genius to read this as suspicious behavior. Everything about this is suspicious.

With her other hand, Nayeon signals for Mina to stand down, then she takes a small step out of the room just to get a better visual of what's going on outside. She's more wedged between the door than she is outside-outside, but it's enough: the hallway is otherwise empty and deafeningly quiet. When Nayeon squints a little, though, she sees that one of the rooms' doors is slid open just the slightest. She looks towards the left end of the carriage where the door connecting to the other carriage is located, then towards the opposite end. Finally, her eyes land back on the attendant. She smiles. "Pretty freaky how quiet it is here, huh?" she says.

The attendant offers her a tight-lipped smile. "Which snack would you like, Mrs. Park?" she asks and then gestures to Nayeon's options. "Maybe you'd like some tea to help you go back to sleep?"

"Yeah, why not?"

As the attendant reaches down to pluck a bottle of tea from the stash, Nayeon's hand shoots out and she wraps her fingers tightly around the attendant's wrist. The attendant visibly tenses but she keeps her eyes downcast, avoiding Nayeon's gaze. Nayeon leans in close and lowers her voice when she says, "I'll let you off easy if you cooperate. Tell me: how many are there?"

The attendant gulps. She's sweating more profusely now. "I don't—I don't know what you're—"

Nayeon pulls the attendant closer when she tries to squirm out of Nayeon's grip. "How many are there? There's a bunch of them in that room over there, right? That's why you kept looking that direction. What about the other carriages? Let's not make this more difficult than it needs to be. Just tell me how many there are and I won't let my very eager friend behind me put a bullet through your head."

For the theatrics of it all, Mina cocks the gun just to let the attendant know that she's very much there and she's very much got a gun. Nayeon appreciates Mina sometimes.

At this point the attendant starts shaking and it looks like she's about to cry. Nayeon almost feels bad about it. Almost, because this woman's one of the people trying to kill them and Nayeon has no intention of letting that happen.

"You're new to this, aren't you?" Nayeon smiles lopsidedly when the attendant lets out a tiny squeak. Poor thing. "I'm telling you now that maybe you should reconsider your career options. Between you and me, I don't think you're really built for this kinda business, you know? But I don't know. Who am I to tell you what to do with your life anyway, right?"

"Ten," the attendant finally wheezes out, then she moves the bags of chips and bottles of drinks aside to show Nayeon a gun hidden among them. Nayeon knows the attendant would have probably shot her with this if she had the guts to do it. "In that room, in this carriage. And—" She licks her lips nervously. "There's another six waiting by the carriage entryways. They're—they're already there. I—I'm supposed to be the—"

Nayeon abruptly lets go of the attendant's wrist and pats her consolingly on the shoulder. "Yeah," she says, plucking the hidden gun out of the trolley, "I figured that out already." She checks the magazine of the gun, slides it back in, cocks the gun then tells the attendant, "You better find cover because shit's about to go down, and it _will_ be messy."

The attendant is confused at first, frozen where she stands, but she begins to scramble when Nayeon strides out of the room completely, raises the gun and pulls the fires two shots. The sound of the gunshots rip through the silence like a roar and Nayeon hears shrieks come from the other rooms in the carriage. Mina rushes out of the room, nostrils flaring as she hisses, "What the _fuck_ is wrong with you?!"

Nayeon doesn't mind Mina and instead calls out in Korean, "Get your asses the fuck out here and let's get this done with, you bastards," as the other occupants of the carriage run out of their rooms in a panicked frenzy. Fuck avoiding a messy confrontation. Fuck it all to hell. They brought the fight to her doorsteps, so she’s going to make them pay for it, bullet for bullet.

"I know you're in there," Nayeon continues, "and I can't kick your asses unless you hand them over to me." She and Mina stay firmly planted on their spot as the other passengers push past them to get to the nearest exit, and four men emerge from the room Nayeon had spotted earlier as suspicious. Three more men emerge from behind them, and another three from behind Nayeon and Mina.

"You're ruining a lot of people's vacations, you know that?" Nayeon taunts. Mina moves to stand back-to-back with Nayeon, facing the assailants from the other end of the hallway. "You really sent that girl to go after us? _Really?_ She's like a babe in the woods; she looked like she was going to shit herself. Also, don't you think ten is a little… overkill?"

Mina mumbles, "God, you talk so much."

"It's an intimidation tactic, shut up," Nayeon mumbles back to Mina. She turns her attention back to the men in front of her and jerks her chin at the man leading the pack. He's huge, built like a brick house, and he's got an ugly mug. Nayeon would love nothing more than to fuck his face up some more. "What? You weren't confident you could take down the two of us so you needed all this much back-up? To be fair, you did send the worst possible person to try and kill—"

"Hand over the girl," he growls. The three other men step forward, guns all aimed at Nayeon. Mina presses harder against Nayeon's back.

Nayeon sucks her teeth. "Yeah… I don't know about that. I'm not very good at doing what I'm told to do."

They open fire simultaneously.

Nayeon dodges the bullets flying at her and lunges towards the men in front of her. She successfully tackles the big guy, the head honcho with the ugly mug, to the ground but he flips them over whip-fast and knocking the gun out of Nayeon's hand. He immediately goes for a punch to her face but she turns her head and his fist misses her face by only a few centimeters. Nayeon knees his groin, sending him crouched over in pain, and rolls out from underneath him, proceeding to land a heavy kick to his side. She blocks the arm of another assailant as he attempts to shoot her and quickly moves to disarm him; she shoots him twice right between his brows and his body falls with a loud thud to the floor.

A fist connects hard and sharp with Nayeon's jaw and it knocks her backwards. Pain explodes in Nayeon's face and her vision flashes black as she steadies herself, hand pressed against the train window for purchase. When the guy who hit her comes swinging at her again, she blocks his punch this time and prepares to shoot him—only when she pulls the trigger, the gun jams. Great. She skips trying to pull the trigger again and instead bashes the gun against her attacker's head. He stumbles backwards, hand clutching the fresh cut on his forehead. Nayeon lifts her shirt up to draw her gun from her holster when another one lunges towards her. She draws the gun out fast and fires three quick shots up his torso. He falls to the ground. Nayeon finishes off the other guy next: as he tries to attack her again, she slams her elbow hard against his chest, aims her gun at his stomach and pulls the trigger. As he falls to the ground she fires at him one more time, this time a head shot, brains scattering everywhere.

She can already feel her face bruising where she'd been punched and she still feels a little woozy from it. She looks over to Mina and suddenly feels a little silly for doing so. Mina's holding up pretty okay on her own, defending the entry to their room—and thus, to Yerim—the best that she can. She watches as Mina blocks the aim of the man she's fighting, a guy at least twice her size in terms of body mass, the bullet redirected and she hits him once, twice, _thrice_ in the face with her elbow before she quickly maneuvers her shoulder under his armpit and throws him to the ground. Hand still gripping his arm, she quickly kicks away the gun from his reach and swiftly moves into an arm bar. She draws her gun lightning-fast and shoots another guy lunging towards her in the head before she finishes off this one she's got locked with a clean shot through the side of his head.

It is entirely inappropriate for Nayeon to feel a sudden wave of fondness wash over her as she watches Mina beat the living shit out of the people trying to kill them.

As Nayeon begins to move, she's slammed hard against the window by another one of the men (was that attendant _sure_ it was only ten, because it sure as hell is beginning to feel like it isn't), his hands wrapped around her neck as he lifts her up and off the ground. Her visions turns blurry again as the oxygen is blocked from entering her system, making her gasp desperately for air, but she's still got fight in her. With her gun lying discarded on the floor, she has both her hands free to grab the back of his neck and, with all the strength she has, pulls him close enough for her to knee him repeatedly in his solar-plexus. He lets out a pained gasp, his grip on her neck momentarily loosening, and Nayeon frees up her right hand to land punches on his face. She's clearly pissed him off because he throws her with an angry grunt and she crashes right _through_ the door of a now empty room.

Every muscle in Nayeon's body is burning and screaming and she thinks she might have broken a rib from being thrown so damn hard by this freak of nature, but she forces herself back up. She attempts to land a kick at his side but he catches her leg and— _Jesus fucking Christ_ —swings her around like a rag doll, tossing her hard against the berths. When she gets back on her feet, he grabs her by her shoulders and slams her against the wall, arm swinging out for a punch. Her left arm shoots out to block his punch and she hits him square on the jaw with her right fist, as hard as she can, then she strikes his torso with a front kick, sending him backwards. It's enough distance to work with but she needs to move fast because he's charging at her again.

She makes a split-second decision to counter his punches with punches of her own instead of reaching for the other gun holstered at her back. He lands heavy-handed punches on her but she manages to hurt him right back, and with every hit she lands on him, she manages to push them forward and out of the room. Nayeon kicks him hard in the groin and he shouts in pain; his body is hunched over, so she kicks him hard enough to send up hurling out of the room. She draws the gun from her back as she strides out and _bang bang bang_ : three shots while he's on the ground, and he'll be staying down for good this time. When the last of the men on her side of the carriage attempts to take her down, she simply raises her gun and takes him down with two shots to the head.

There's no time for Nayeon to catch her breath: Mina could hold up her own but she was being swarmed by the last of their foes, and they were closing in on Yerim. She rushes towards Mina, flipping her grip on her gun so she's holding it by its barrel. _Here goes nothing,_ Nayeon thinks—then she's flinging her gun at the head of one of the guys like she's throwing a baseball. The gun hits his head with an ugly sound and he momentarily falls to his back. Now gun-less, Nayeon unsheathes the knife from her back.

Let it never be said Nayeon doesn't know how to get people's attention.

Head honcho guy is unfortunately still very much alive and kicking, and he moves quickly to draw his gun as Nayeon approaches. She's faster though, closing the distance between their bodies and slashing the knife out in a swift arc, blood gushing out from the long cut she inflicts on him on his neck. He twists the arm he's using to block Nayeon's striking hand and grabs her by her elbow, pushing her arm away and rendering her unable to strike him again for the time-being. He raises the gun and pulls the trigger, but Nayeon yanks her arm from his grip and ducks, crashing into him with full force until they're on the ground. She moves fast to hold him down firm, legs bracketed securely around his torso, and she manages to land a few punches at his face before another one of his guys locks her neck in a choke, prying her off of head honcho. She smashes the butt of her knife hard against her attacker's hands multiple times until he lets go of her, growling in pain, but as she gets up to her feet head honcho kicks the inside of her calf and she falls to her back.

Nayeon clutches her side, letting out a long and pained groan, and looks up at the guy that tried to choke her out.

"You son of a bitch," Nayeon says, all the wind knocked out of her lung but still pissed. It's the man from earlier, the one who'd asked for directions. She forces herself back to her feet, her entire body screaming in pain, and gets into position. "I should have slit your throat earlier. Would've saved the both of us a lot of time," and his lips curl. She charges at him.

He manages to block most of her strikes but she continues to slash at him relentlessly. The knife arcs downward and she cuts him from his chest to his stomach then slams the ball of her foot to his chest. He slams against the wall hard. She goes for another hit but he blocks it this time; she flips the knife in her hand and presses forward with all of her weight and strength, hoping to drive the knife into the meat of his neck. It's a difficult task because he pushes her back and he's in relatively better shape than Nayeon's in right now. Too busy trying to kill the motherfucker, Nayeon doesn't even notice when head honcho kicks her hard from the side and it sends her flying.

Nayeon looks up from where she's landed and finds Mina staring right back at her while she grapples with another guy. "Rough night?" Mina grits as she secures her triangle choke around his neck, then she begins to pound his head with punches.

"Rough night," Nayeon groans. She jerks her chin at the guy Mina's ground-and-pounding. "Need help with that?"

Mina grunts in response which Nayeon takes for a yes. She gets up, clutching her side and walking with a bit of a limp, then leans down the grab the guy from the back. Mina loosens the choke and finally completely lets go once Nayeon's got a firm grip on him. She pulls him up, holds him by his jaw with one hand then runs the blade of her knife along his neck, cutting deep into his carotid artery and jugular veins. She holds up like that until he stops kicking, blood gushing out thick from the cut, then lets him drop to the ground. She offers a hand to Mina but when she leans down, she feels the full weight of someone else's body on her back and his weight drags her backwards.

 _"I am fucking_ tired _of this bullshit,"_ Nayeon shouts as she drives her elbow into his rib cage one, two, three times before she manages to throw him over her shoulder. It's him again, the man from the train station, and Nayeon only becomes more irritated. She pounces on top of him and angrly drives her knife down but he blocks her wrist with both his hands again, so she places her other hand on the back of her wrists and uses the weight of her body to drive the knife down. It works, pushing his arms down flat against his chest and the blade of the knife rests just centimeters from his face. Nayeon removes her hand from the back of her wrist, raises it and slaps his face hard against the knife. She keeps her hand planted firmly against his face as she drives the knife deeper into his cheek. As he struggles against Nayeon, his hand shoots up and he curls his fingers around Nayeon's neck, forcing her off of him. Nayeon slams her palm against the side of his face again, driving the knife deeper into his cheek at the same spot, before she pulls it back. He yelps in pain but manages to push Nayeon off of himself and rolling them over so he's pinning her down.

"You just had to hand the girl over," he pants, angry, and the blood from the ugly cut on his face drips onto Nayeon's chest, her own face, "would have saved the both of us a lot of time." He raises his fist to hit her but a hand—Mina's—wraps around his wrist and Mina drags him off of Nayeon. He falls to the ground and as he tries to get back up, Mina draws her gun and shoots him four times in quick succession. Nayeon back on the palm of her hands, looks at the now-corpse of the man, then says to Mina, "I had it under control."

Mina helps Nayeon up. "Sure you did."

Nayeon's blood runs cold when she hears Yerim shrieking for help.

They rush to their room where they can see one of the last men standing trying to drag Yerim out from under the bed, pulling her by her ankles, and Mrs. Zhang is screaming her head off in fear. One more comes swinging at Mina but she blocks his strike and shoots up upwards from his torso to his chest to his head in rapid-fire shots. Another one attacks Nayeon, knocking her knife out of her hand and kneeing her in her stomach. She ends up hunched over but it gives her the leeway to reach down to her boot where another knife is sheathed and she strikes him with it. He gasps wetly, hand pressed against his neck where she slashed it, and stumbles back. It gives Nayeon enough room to land more quick strikes on him—in his inner thighs, his chest, his neck again—before she finishes it off by driving the knife deep into his stomach, one hand clasped around the back of his neck to pull him towards her while she pushes the knife in. She tosses him aside after and his body falls to the floor with a thud.

 _"Unnie!"_ Yerim calls and Nayeon whips her head to find Yerim being dragged out of the room, and even though she thrashes against the man holding her, it's no use; he's still ten, twenty times stronger than her and her thrashing barely even fazes him.

Heart in her throat, Nayeon rushes towards Yerim but her feet come to a screeching halt when she sees that head honcho has Mina locked tight against him, the muzzle of his gun pressed against her forehead. Nayeon thinks, _Shit._

"Give us the girl or I shoot your partner," head honcho threatens, arms tightening around Mina's neck when she struggles against him. Mina looks directly at Nayeon, her face twisted in anger and pain, but she gives her head a small shake. Mouths, _Don't._

Nayeon licks her lips, eyes flickering back to Yerim. Her face is tear-stained and she's whimpering in fear, struggling weakly against the man holding her. Nayeon looks back to Mina.

Head honcho presses the gun harder against Mina's temple but Mina says to Nayeon, "Don't let them get her, Nayeon, don't you fucking _dare_. Don't compromise this mission for me."

This is a familiar situation for Nayeon. Mina's always been about the mission, doing anything and everything in her power to accomplish her objectives. It was all or nothing for Mina; no compromises as long as the mission is concerned. She'd be willing to sacrifice anything, even herself, for the sake of the mission. Prague is perhaps the best example of this. Nayeon wouldn't have found herself lying in the snow, bleeding to death, otherwise.

That's the thing though: that's _Mina's_ style, not Nayeon's.

"Fine," Nayeon says, eyes still on Mina. "Take the kid."

"Nayeon!" Mina gasps and something so terrible flashes in Yerim's eyes as the man drags her away, tossing him onto her shoulder. She continues to thrash against him, calling for help, Mina's help, _anyone's_ help but it's no use. Mina's yelling at Nayeon now, angry and betrayed, but Nayeon pays no attention to it. The head honcho smirks, pulling the gun away from Mina's temple, and just as he's about to say something—probably to gloat—Nayeon turns fast as a whip and hurls her knife at him. It hits him right between his eyes and he's dead before he even hits the ground.

Mina and the man carrying Yerim are both stunned but after they get over the initial shock, Mina scrambles to grab the gun that was pressed against her temple just moments earlier and the man fumbles as he draws his own gun. It's like a classic Western showdown, but Mina's got lightning quick reflexes and she pulls the trigger before he gets to shoot his own gun: the bullet flies clean through his head and he slumps to the ground. Yerim hurries to remove herself from him, face speckled with his blood and runs to Mina's side. Mina holds her protectively, whispering to her that it's okay now.

Nayeon drags her feet as she walks towards them, all the pain and exhaustion from tonight finally catching up on her. Her muscles will be sore and her face is starting to feel numb from where she's been hit.

Mina clenches her jaw, still clearly angry at Nayeon, but it passes and her expression softens. "That was risky, you know," she mutters.

"It was a _calculated_ risk," Nayeon replies, clutching her side again. She looks down at Yerim, who's staring back at her wide-eyed and crying, and she says, "I'd never let them hurt you, okay? Never."

"You okay?" Mina asks Nayeon more gently.

"Could use a drink," Nayeon says. She looks around to see if the attendant left the trolley anywhere nearby.

Mrs. Zhang's frightened shriek pierces through the silence as she looks around at all the dead bodies lying around, at all the blood splattered against the floor, the doors and the windows. She looks at Mina and Nayeon next, shrieks again then her eyes roll back and she faints by the door of the room. Mina, Nayeon and Yerim all exchange glances with each other before Mina tells Yerim, "You should, uh, check on her." Yerim nods quietly and rushes to the old woman's side.

Now that it's just them again, Nayeon slumps back against the wall and slowly slides down, sitting on the floor and still clutching her side. Mina stays standing for a few seconds before she occupies the spot beside Nayeon, hissing from the pain of her own wounds and bruises. They sit together shoulder-to-shoulder in silence, taking in the mess they've made around them, at all the splashes of red against the pale white walls and bluish-green carpet and the windows.

"We should call Jeongyeon," Mina says after a while.

Nayeon groans. Now would be a _great_ time for that drink.

 

[♫♫♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2ovo0xumcU)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some little footnotes:
> 
> \- The route that Minayeon are taking is called the [Fujian Route](https://www.gadventures.com/trips/beijing-to-hong-kong-fujian-route/ACBF/), a pretty common/popular route that takes you through several historical and cultural hot spots in China, starting from Beijing and heading all the way down south to Hong Kong as its final destination.  
> \- The Liberal Democratic Party, according to Wikipedia, is "Centre-right to right-wing. The LDP is made up of various conservative, nationalist and centrist factions" ([Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Japan)).  
> \- Mina's watch: [Tank Louis Cartier](https://www.cartier.com/en-us/collections/watches/all-watches/tank-de-cartier-watches/tank-louis-cartier-watches/wgta0010-tank-louis-cartier-watch.html); Nayeon's watch: [Tudor Black Bay GMT](https://www.tudorwatch.com/watches/black-bay-gmt). I'm a huge watch enthusiast and I've always believed that watches are great subtle forms of self-expression because they reflect the personality, style/preferences and lifestyle of the wearer. That said, I wanted to do just that for Mina and Nayeon.  
> \- The road roller is a [JoJo reference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIaqZh_gGz4/).  
> \- The Stardew Valley convo and just its general presence in this fic is for [Nikki](http://archiveofourown.org/users/softshocks/), resident lesbian farmer.
> 
> Finally, visual references and/or general working aesthetics:
> 
> 1) Nayeon:  
>   
>   
>   
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 2) Mina:  
>   
>   
>   
> 
> 
> 3) Finally, Yerim, who was actually based (or is, actually...?) Park Yejin, former JYP trainee and Minayeon lovechild, but obviously she's much younger in this fic:  
> 
> 
> Minayeon also breathed. That's really kind of them and enough to fuel this fic on.  
> 
> 
> I'm on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/maximalisms/) and on [Curiouscat](http://curiouscat.me/maximalist/). All comments are welcome and appreciated. 
> 
> 'Til the next one!


	3. XI'AN → CHANGSHA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nayeon turns and turns and turns the wheel to the left until it hits its limit, the entire car turning with it, and what happens next is a blur of shouting, wheels screeching, and metal on metal. It all happens so fast Nayeon barely has the time to register that she's sent them flying right into a traffic barrier at high speed, and the crash is every bit as gnarly and gruesome as one would expect it to be. The steering wheel slams into Nayeon's chest like a heavy-handed punch, knocking all of the wind right out of her lungs, and when the car finally slams into the barrier, her entire body limply follows the movement of the car and she hits her head on the window.
> 
> _Is this how it ends for us?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won't bore you guys with all the details, but for those of you who follow me on Twitter, you already know about my twice-broken and twice-fixed laptop woes, my thesis woes and my having-to-work-on-thesis-without-my-busted-laptop woes. It all has a happy ending, of course, since I'm back now, my laptop is with me in better shape than ever, and this chapter is actually out here. 
> 
> I'm sorry it's taken so long to update, and I'm extremely grateful to those of you who have patiently stuck around and have continued to support this fic anyway. Thank you for believing in this fic! That, more than anything, has given me the motivation to really keep pushing forward with this fic. I told myself I wouldn't leave a multi-chapter fic unfinished again but knowing that there are people who still believe in this fic also really touches my heart. So, again: thank you, thank you, thank you.
> 
> For those of you who sent in song recs to me via Curiouscat, you might just find some of them integrated into this chapter. ;)
> 
> Lastly: **Warning for violence in this chapter.** It's not very graphic but please heed this warning anyway.
> 
> Now, without further ado, and after much waiting: let's get into it.

  
  
  


[ ♫♫♫ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG9znGbo3O0)

  
  
  


The driver drops them off at the guesthouse Jeongyeon booked them a room at. It's tucked in a quiet street in the Shuyuanmen area a few kilometers south of the Xi'An Railway Station. It was Jeongyeon's idea to keep them as far away from there and from the crime scene as much as possible while they were lying low in Xi'An, and Nayeon and Mina know better than to question their friend's judgement on these matters.

Coordinating an emergency stop for the train at the asscrack of dawn and hours before it would arrive at the railway station was a lot of heavy logistical work for Jeongyeon, and cleaning up the bloody mess and sneaking Mina, Nayeon and Yerim out before the actual police arrived was even more of a pain in the neck, and there was also the matter of finding a discreet guest house or inn that the three could stay in for the time being. Oh, and there's Mrs. Zhang to take care of as well. They could clear out any other physical or digital evidence of Mina and Nayeon's involvement but they left an eye witness behind, and if _she_ went missing too then that would arouse more suspicion. That, and neither Nayeon or Mina wanted Mrs. Zhang to be 'taken care of', which could only translate to her being snuffed.

Yoo Jeongyeon is not Yoo Jeongyeon if she doesn't find a way to make this all work out somehow, though. It takes a lot to clean up the messes agents left in their wake, and there's no one else that Nayeon and Mina know who can clean up a mess as thoroughly and efficiently as Jeongyeon can.

The Service has a department dedicated solely to 'cleaning up' after its agents. Digital footprints, physical evidence of involvement, paper trails—if there is anything left behind to be cleaned up and that could compromise the agents and the Service as a whole, the 'cleaners' (they're working on this, trying to find a much sexier term for it) would step in and do their thing. Jeongyeon is easily one of the best at it. Maybe it's because Jeongyeon genuinely enjoyed cleaning or maybe it's because, being the youngest sibling, her older sisters often left all the cleaning at home to her and she just ended up being so good at it that she decided to make an entire career out of it. Point is, no one can do the job like Jeongyeon can.

Neither Nayeon nor Mina know the full details of how Jeongyeon even does what she does (and Nayeon's never been too keen on figuring all of it out either), but they know Jeongyeon's got a network of other 'cleaners' and related contacts, something like The Society of Crossed Keys, that she turns to when she needs help especially off Korean shores. That network of connections is what made tonight's clean-up possible even if Jeongyeon wasn't physically present to lead the operation herself, and that's how Mina, Nayeon and Yerim find themselves in Shuyuanmen now, the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. It's a little crazy to think about how just over two hours ago they were fighting for their lives in a claustrophobic train carriage.

The middle-aged man at the front desk eyes them cautiously but he quietly takes their money anyway and leads them to their room. After being extracted from the train, they barely had any time to get changed and properly clean up. Nayeon had thrown on a loose hoodie and zipped it all the way up to hide her blood-stained clothes and she tried to wipe off the blood from her face as cleanly as she could. No amount of concealer could fully hide the bruising on Nayeon's jaw. She hides any bruising around her eyes behind her shades and Mina does the same. Yerim remains deathly quiet the entire time.

"Enjoy your stay," the man tells them, eyes bouncing back and forth between Nayeon and Mina, then leaves.

Nayeon drops her bag by the foot of the second bed in the room and flops down onto a nearby chair, groaning loud and painfully. As she'd predicted, every muscle in her body is aching and sore but her sides especially hurt. She unzips her hoodie and reaches inside, lightly prodding her rib area. She winces and hisses. She doesn't think anything is broken but for sure there's some really bad bruising there. Between her and Mina, they'd need a lot of ice for their wounds.

Mina locks the door then settles on the edge of the other bed, taking off her sunglasses. She jerks her chin at Nayeon and remarks, "Nice sunglasses, by the way."

"Thanks," Nayeon says, followed by a groan when she adjust herself on her seat. She removes her own sunglasses and places them on top of the table beside where she's seated. She clutches her side again. "Tom Ford."

"We should go out and buy some painkillers later," Mina says after quietly observing Nayeon's suffering. "I think we can ask the guy earlier for some ice."

Nayeon just hums in response. Her entire body feels so, so heavy on top of feeling like it's been run over by a bulldozer at least twelve times. Now that all the adrenaline is out of her system, she's starting to feel exhaustion settle in too, her head spinning from it. There's nothing she wants to do more than to crash on the honestly very comfortable-looking bed she's claimed as her own and snooze for a couple of hours or maybe even a whole day. They wouldn't be leaving right away this time, not when they had to give themselves time to figure out their next points of action and Jeongyeon said she'd send over someone to 'replenish their supplies', so they'd have to wait for that person too.

"I'm gonna take a shower first, if that's okay," Yerim says with a hushed voice. This is the first time she's spoken since they left the train and it's clear to see that she's still shaken by everything that happened earlier. Her demeanor now reminds Nayeon of when they first met her… which wasn't so long ago, now that she thinks of it. It was—what?—just _two_ days ago when they met her?

Mina replies, "Of course, Yerim." Her eyes flit to Nayeon for a moment, then back to Yerim. "You can go ahead while Nayeon and I get settled."

Nayeon watches as Yerim moves about quietly, head ducked the entire time and shoulders hunched in like she was retreating into herself, then she silently slips into the bathroom. Even the click of the lock is quiet. That leaves Mina and Nayeon all alone in the room and a heavy curtain of silence hangs between them for a few moments longer before Mina tells Nayeon, "You need to fix that."

"Fix what?" Nayeon asks, furrowing her brows. "The lock of the bathroom door? I don't work here, you know. That's not my problem."

Mina scowls at Nayeon, deep and burning, but her exhaustion makes it impossible for her to hold it for long. She tiredly grumbles, "Your antics earlier on the train, when you almost let them take her. _Fix that._ "

Nayeon looks over to the bathroom then sighs. As much as she hates to admit it, Mina's right. She'd already reassured Yerim that she would never let anyone harm her but it's plain to see that it wasn't enough to ease Yerim's heart. She realizes now that maybe Yerim's more shaken by Nayeon's risky move than she's trying to let on. And Nayeon does feel bad about it. That was the one thing she hadn't really factored into her decision. What she was most concerned about at that moment was the best way to make sure neither Mina nor Yerim got hurt and that she wouldn't have to sacrifice one for the other, but she didn't think of the emotional repercussions her decision would have on Yerim. So much for a calculated risk.

"I'll talk to her about it later," Nayeon promises Mina, now feeling more exhausted than ever. Nothing like a heavy heart to drain the last of your life force out of you. When Mina continues to give her the stink-eye, Nayeon holds her hands up and says, "What? Why are you looking at me like that? I said I'd talk to her, so I will. Contrary to whatever you think, I actually do feel bad for worrying Yerim like that."

Mina's expression softens a little but that doesn't stop her from sharply scolding Nayeon about it: "You _know_ what Yerim's been through and you _know_ the last thing she needs is to believe even for just a second that we'd actually give her up. We've already won her trust so I don't need you ruining that for us."

Nayeon doesn't say anything at first. She leans back against her chair, cradles her chin in her palm then, staring long and hard at Mina, asks, "You didn't _actually_ think I'd let them take Yerim, did you?"

This time Mina says nothing, briefly looking away from Nayeon like she was afraid that she'd give something away, that her eyes would betray her somehow, before she holds Nayeon's gaze again.

"Did you?" Nayeon presses on, perplexed by Mina's reaction.

It looks like Mina is going to say something this time or at least she's _trying_ to but she can't make her throat open up enough to get the words out of her mouth. She looks away again, longer this time, and everything finally starts to make sense for Nayeon. It's so ridiculous it almost makes her laugh but it also twists and snaps something inside her.

"You're not special, Mina," Nayeon says starkly, "if that's what you're thinking. I did what I did because I knew I didn't have to compromise _either_ of you, not because—" She frowns. Her heart suddenly feels so brittle. "I didn't do it for _you_ ," she continues, slow and clear. "You can deny it all you want but I know you think I did, so I'm telling you now that I didn't. It wasn't _for_ you or _because_ of you. If I had to leave you behind to accomplish this mission and get Yerim to Hong Kong, I would. But I didn't have to, not in that moment."

To her credit, Mina continues to hold Nayeon's gaze despite the onslaught against her. Her expressions remains even, unfazed, but Nayeon sees the way her jaw is clenched and not out of anger this time. It's… something else.

"I didn't do it for you," Nayeon repeats more softly this time. "Prague, everything else before that: it's all behind me now. Behind _us_ now. I don't—" Her words catch in her throat. She doesn't have it in her to say it. "Get your head out of your ass, will you, princess? The world doesn't revolve around you. This is all pretty rich coming from you too after you left me in Prague.”

They fall completely silent again, deafeningly so. Nayeon works her jaw in frustration, arms crossed over her chest even when it makes her side hurt, and she keeps her eyes locked on the bathroom door. Mina looks anywhere else but at Nayeon as well but Nayeon can sense her frustration, and maybe even her embarrassment, anyway. It's not a very good way to end a long and exhausting night or to start another long and exhausting day but the words have left Nayeon's mouth already; there's no taking them back now.

Fortunately for Nayeon, Yerim steps out of the bathroom, all cleaned up and in a brand new set of clothes, so Nayeon doesn't have to spend another second in this awkward whatever-the-fuck-it-is she and Mina have found themselves in. Yerim, ever sharp, seems to read the room quickly but she doesn't comment on it and instead proceeds to walk to the bed, old clothes bundled up in her hands.

Nayeon gets up so abruptly that pain sets every nerve in her body on fire but she keeps walking on, grabs a handful of fresh clothes from her bag, her wash bag and her towel and heads straight into the bathroom. She makes sure not to close the door too hard so she doesn't alarm or upset Yerim even more than she already has.

The spray of warm water that breaks against the crown of her head comes as a relief. She watches the soap suds circle the drain as she scrubs dried blood off of her skin, moving with more care around her bruises. When she's cleaned her skin raw, she continues to stand under the steady shower, pressing her forehead against the shower tiles, tired in every sense of the word. She stays like that until the water runs cold.

* * *

Mina takes up the task of buying meds, which is for the best because after the little hullabaloo earlier, Nayeon doesn't really want to be anywhere near Mina just yet and she knows Mina must feel the same way. She also knows that this is Mina's not-so-sly tactic to give Nayeon and Yerim the chance to talk about what happened earlier, knowing full well that her presence might just make the conversation awkward. This was between Nayeon and Yerim, after all.

Although it's been well over three hours since the train incident and the sun is already comfortably settled among its throne of clouds, burning bright and warm, and even though they were all incredibly exhausted, none of them could find sleep either. Not yet anyway. Not even Yerim, who's still busy tapping away on the iPad. There are faint sounds from her game where she taps or presses. Nayeon watches her quietly from where she sits on the other bed, ice pack pressed firmly to her side. Mina had a whole bunch of them sent to their room and if the lady who brought them had any questions about Mina and Nayeon's beat-up states, she kept them to herself. The generous tip Nayeon gave her seemed to do the trick too.

Nayeon hisses in pain. Much as she doesn't want to look at Mina's face right now, she could also really use the painkillers. She notices the way Yerim glances at her from her periphery but she forces her eyes back on the iPad screen, seemingly hellbent on avoiding any form of contact with Nayeon right now.

It dawns on Nayeon that she might have really fucked up just then.

 _Is she mad at me?_ Nayeon wonders, her heart sinking to her stomach. It's not that she thinks it would be silly for Yerim to be upset with her because Yerim does have every right to be. Still, the thought that the young girl might be angry with her or that she's lost Yerim's trust stings Nayeon. It's the last thing she would ever want to happen yet here they are.

No talking is going to happen unless one of them initiates a conversation, though, so Nayeon does the responsible— _adult_ —thing and takes matters into her own hands. She asks Yerim, "You aren't tired yet?"

Yerim's hand freezes, finger hovering the iPad screen, then she shakes her head. Not once does she turn to face Nayeon.

"You sure?" Nayeon presses on, careful not to sound too persistent or annoying about it. It's painfully obvious that Nayeon's trying really hard, maybe even _too_ hard, to get a conversation rolling and get them to the point Mina wants them at but Nayeon can at least try to make the experience a little less excruciating for the both of them. "You can go ahead and catch some sleep. I'll stay up to wait for Mina to get back."

Nayeon expects Yerim to not say anything but Yerim replies, "It's okay, I'm not very tired," completely going against any of Nayeon's expectations. She eerily reminds Nayeon of Mina in that sense. "I'll just sleep later when Mina unnie is back."

 _This is better than nothing,_ Nayeon tells herself. At least she can take this as a sign that maybe Yerim's willing to talk about it. It's hard not to feel horrible though when she realizes the implications of what Yerim said. _When Mina unnie is back_ —it's like she didn't trust Nayeon anymore or was being more cautious about it.

Nayeon wonders if kids were always this… _complicated_ to deal with. She knows she could be difficult to deal with as a child and even more so when she was a teenager, hormones and teenage angst and all, but she has no idea how her mother managed. She makes a mental note to shoot her mom a quick text or something just to show some appreciation. Hell, maybe she should text her now. _Hi, mom. How do you deal with a kid whose trust you probably just lost over a decision you made to protect her? How do you explain the complexities of that? She's your pretend-granddaughter, by the way. Mina wants to file a fake-divorce with me too. Love you x_

She sets the ice pack aside and gets up from her bed, moving to settle by the edge of Yerim's. It makes Yerim look up this time ( _finally_ ) and before she can look away again, Nayeon says, "Yerim, I want to talk to you about… earlier. On the train."

The look on Yerim's face makes it very evident that she does not want to talk about it, or at least she's not ready to.

It's now or never though so Nayeon continues, cautious and unsure, "I… am admittedly not very good with these, uh, sorts of things. But I can't let what happened earlier—what _I did_ earlier—just… be, as is." Nayeon shifts closer to Yerim and it relieves Nayeon that Yerim doesn't _reject_ her. "I know I already told you earlier that it was just a bluff, to save both you and Mina, and that I wouldn't let them harm you—that I wouldn't let _anyone_ harm you—but I know now that I should have thought better about it. I know that it… that it _hurt_ you when I did that, that I made you think I'd give you up just like that despite everything I promised, and I want to apologize to you for that, Yerim." She holds Yerim's eyes with her gaze and sincerely says, "I'm sorry, Yerim. I'm sorry I worried you like that and I'm sorry I almost compromised your safety. Maybe sorry doesn't cut it but I want you to know I would never let anything happen to you, okay? I promised I'd get you to safety and I have no intention of breaking that promise."

At first Yerim doesn't say anything, presumably to absorb everything Nayeon just said (and Nayeon _did_ just say a whole lot of things) first. Then, slowly, the walls she's put up around her begin to crumble and her chin wobbles. It only takes another second to pass for the waterworks to start, tears beginning to stain Yerim's cheeks and dribbling down her chin to her shirt. Nayeon panics at first, horrified that she just made Yerim cry even more, but she composes herself and grabs her towel from her bed, leaning in the wipe away Yerim's tears. "It's okay," she says softly; gently, apologetically. "It's okay."

Yerim sniffles, wiping her eyes, her nose, then brokenly whispers, "I thought you were going to leave me."

Nayeon almost feels like crying herself, her own heart splintering at the sight of Yerim crying, but she reminds herself she needs to get a grip and that she's the grown-up here, she should be able to handle this without crying like a baby herself. She cups Yerim's face in her hands, tears dampening her hands, and tells Yerim, "I would never do that, okay? Never. Okay, Yerim? I would never do that. Neither would Mina. We won't let anyone hurt you. We've got you."

"I'm not mad at you," Yerim mumbles with another sniffle. "I was just scared that—that even you would—would leave me. I didn't want to doubt you. I don't want to doubt you. But I was s-scared. I don't want to doubt you or Mina unnie."

"Hey now," Nayeon says soothingly, moving up the bed to sit beside and hug Yerim, "you might just drown your iPad in your tears and you won't be able to play that farming game of yours anymore. Wouldn't want all your progress to go to waste, right?"

It punches a watery laugh out of Yerim's chest. "I have a girlfriend now!" she proudly tells Nayeon.

"You have a _girlfriend?_ " Nayeon asks, genuinely surprised. Really, Nayeon's more surprised that Yerim's out there getting a girlfriend with barely any effort while Nayeon… well, Nayeon's suffering, to say the least. "I mean, congrats, but I thought this was a _farming_ game not, like, Bumble."

The Bumble thing totally flies over Yerim's head (Nayeon belatedly realizes Yerim has probably never heard of Bumble in her entire life) but Yerim explains, "You get to farm and marry someone. It's fun. My girlfriend is Haley and she's kind of like Mina unnie."

"Mina?" Nayeon can already imagine the absolute headache this Haley probably is if she's anything like Mina. "Yeah, good luck with _that,_ then."

When Yerim's finally settled down, the last of her tears dried and the last of her sniffles sniffled, Nayeon lightly nudges Yerim's arm and asks, "You okay, now?" Yerim nods. Nayeon takes Yerim's hands in hers and they feel so small, so frail. She holds onto them firmly but gently all at once as she promises, "I won't let anything happen to you, okay? And I promise I won't do anything like that again. Mina and I are going to make sure you get to your aunt safely no matter what."

Yerim nods, quiet but firm, and Nayeon holds out her pinky. She smiles. Yerim looks puzzled at first then laughs, hooking her pinky around Nayeon's. Nayeon then pulls Yerim into a hug, saying, "Come on, let's hug it out—that's how they do it in the movies," and Yerim gladly lets herself get engulfed in a warm embrace.

Yerim's beaming from ear to ear when Nayeon pulls away, so much so that it would be easy to forget she was bawling her eyes out just a few minutes ago. Nayeon places the iPad on Yerim's lap and says, "Now, tell me more about how this farming-slash-dating simulation game of yours works, and maybe a little bit more about this Haley person."

* * *

Mina returns to find Nayeon clumsily tapping away on the iPad while Yerim tries to guide her through it, correcting her here and there with more patience than one would expect from a ten-year-old, and asks, "What're you guys up to?" She locks the door behind her and places the plastic bag she's carrying onto the table.

Nayeon flips the iPad around to show Mina the screen and replies, "We've finished the community center. Oh, and Yerim has a girlfriend now, so I don't know if we should give her the talk about the birds and the bees just yet or…"

It takes a few seconds for everything Nayeon just said to register in Mina's head but once it does, a smile slowly blooms on her lips—and it's a _real_ smile, not her snooty smirk or the too-rehearsed-to-be-genuinely-kind one. This one reaches her eyes. Nayeon knows she's happy (and relieved) that it looks like the issue at hand's finally been settled and that Nayeon and Yerim are back to normal with each other again.

"Which one's your girl?" Mina asks Yerim as she takes out a bottle of painkillers from the plastic bag. She walks over to the mini fridge and fishes out two bottles of water, one for herself and one for Nayeon.

"Haley," Yerim says, kicking her feet happily. "I was telling Nayeon unnie about how Haley is kind of like you."

Mina pops two tablets in her mouth, swallows them down with a gulp of water then passes the bottle of painkillers to Nayeon. "Like me? How so?"

"A pain in the ass, basically," Nayeon explains for Yerim then takes two pills herself. She swallows them dry like the madwoman that she is.

Mina scoffs but Yerim says, "You just have to be nice to her! She seems really mean at first but if you're nice to her and buy her stuff she likes and get her flowers from Pierre's store, she warms up to you."

"I just think the whole kindness thing ought to go both ways," Nayeon counters, directing her statement more towards Mina than Yerim. "And I mean, do you _really_ want to invest this much time, money and effort on someone who's just straight-up mean to you? I’m all for being kind and nice but if the person’s just being a jerk to you all the time then I think that’s just seriously messed up. I mean, I'm just looking out for you, kid. Don't want you dating the wrong people, virtual or otherwise."

Mina doesn't say anything to _that_ , perhaps (appropriately and rightfully) stung by Nayeon's words or maybe too baffled by the sudden turn this conversation took, and all just over a farming simulation game. She just shakes her head, resigned, then asks Nayeon, "Did the guy Jeongyeon said she'd send over drop by yet?"

Nayeon walks over to the sole cabinet in the room and produces a box from inside it. She walks over to the bed and places it on top, opening it for Mina to inspect its contents. Nayeon explains, "He arrived just a couple of minutes before you did. Maybe twenty, twenty-five minutes ago. I've already looked through everything but have a go at it too." She almost broke his arm too, finding his sweaty, nervous state suspicious, but she figures she can leave that part out. Jeongyeon won't be pleased either but Nayeon knows she'll understand.

Mina takes out the contents one by one. New sets of passports, guns, and knives to replace the ones they'd lost, burner phones, bundles of cash and a file envelope with the Service's logo stamped on the back.

"I haven't opened _that_ one yet," Nayeon tells Mina, gesturing to the seal still on the folder.

"How thoughtful of you," Mina remarks halfheartedly then rips the seal off, fishing out the documents kept inside it the folder. "They've done a background check on the guys that attacked us earlier," she says to Nayeon, though her eyes are glued to the documents. When she's done skimming through everything, she passes them to Nayeon and continues, "All SSD, including your best friend from the train station."

Nayeon scowls down at the picture of the man Mina is referring to, the colonialist fuckface whose throat she should have slit before they ever even boarded the train. Fucker even had the audacity to get snarky with her in the middle of trying to kill her. She can't ever forgive someone like that. She continues to read through the documents and mumbles, "They must want Yerim that bad if they're sending the fucking SSD to butcher us."

Mina's eyes flicker to Yerim. The young girl's been quiet the entire time, looking all at once eager and afraid to know more about their situation. Nayeon's certain that Yerim's more than familiar with the SSD, the North Korean government's hound dogs. Nayeon's heard lots of stories of the atrocities they committed, of all the blood on their hands, but this is the first time she's gotten into real deep shit against a handful of SSD agents. 

"Travelling by train is out of the question for now," Mina says eventually, putting everything back into the box, "so we'll just have to travel by car or any other available means for the rest of this journey."

Nayeon groans. Though she does acknowledge that traveling by train might not be the best option right now, especially after they literally just got ambushed on the train to Xi'An, she's not keen on the idea of driving for.... what? Ten, eleven hours? Maybe even more? Road trips are great, real nice and dandy. Sure. Whatever. Just not when a) she has to be behind the steering while for more than two hours and b) they're not on a road trip, they're on the run from people who want to kill them in very painful ways and will, in fact, enjoy the process.

"You _always_ whine about long drives," Mina sighs, though Nayeon catches just the faintest hint of a smile on her lips. Of course, Nayeon does her best to pretend she didn't see it, or at least she tries to tell herself she must be so tired she's starting to see things. 

Okay, maybe there's more to why Nayeon is dreading this too. The thought of being stuck in a moving hunk of metal with Mina for god knows how many hours is just _terrifying_ to Nayeon because even after everything that's happened between them, Nayeon still associates long drives with Mina. Long drives, that stupid playlist. That stupid, stupid, _stupid_ playlist that Mina made for the both of them to make excruciatingly long hours more tolerable, but she mostly made it for Nayeon's benefit because she knows how antsy and restless she can get. Because being cool-headed is the key to success, to getting the fuck out of the mission alive, but also because Mina _cared_ enough to make it anyway. Because she paid attention. Because she knows Nayeon, sometimes even better than Nayeon knows herself. Nayeon is equally terrified that she'll let her guard down because of all of this useless sentimentality. 

Before her brain explodes from all of the thoughts running about, Nayeon takes a moment to remind herself that Mina's probably deleted the playlist already. What reason did she have to keep it anyway? It's stupid for Nayeon to be getting so sentimental over a fucking playlist.

_So why am I still thinking about all of this?_

Mina looks at Nayeon funny, _knowingly,_ but in the end, all she says is, "I can do longer shifts, if you'd like. I don't mind."

Nayeon takes this as her cue to make a totally unnecessary quip at Mina: "And what? Let you, like, fucking... out-drive me or some shit? Let you gloat about how you're so much better than me when it comes to long drives? No, thanks. Equal shifts. Hell, I'll drive _all the way,_  even, just to prove my point."

"Which is?"

"That I'm better than you. In every aspect." Nayeon pauses. "Objectively."

Mina just rolls her eyes.

The drive from Xi'An to Changsha is estimated to be anywhere between ten to eleven hours, not taking into consideration any stops they might have to make along the way for whatever reason. It's not as bad as the other long(er) drives Nayeon and Mina have had in the past, at least, but it still won't be a very comfortable journey. When Nayeon jokingly suggests that they just hot-wire a car instead of renting one, Mina immediately whips out her phone and searches for the nearest car rentals to them. Buzzkill, as always. No sense of imagination at all. Or humor, for that matter.

"We should get some sleep before we head out," Mina says. As if to express she agrees, Yerim yawns. 

While Mina and Nayeon were discussing the plans for their trip to Changsha and even beyond that, Yerim had fallen completely silent, dozing off and then jerking awake again, over and over. They told her that it would be fine for her to sleep ahead but Yerim had insisted that she wouldn't go to sleep until Mina and Nayeon did. She had a determined look on her face when she told them this, but to Nayeon she looked more like a tiny, adorable and very sleepy puppy. Still, Yerim stayed true to her word and Nayeon has to commend her for that.

Nayeon checks the time and is surprised to find that it's past ten already. Maybe it's just because she's exhausted but it simultaneously felt like no time had passed at all and like an entire day had gone by already. Rest: she definitely needs to rest. Get her mind and body functioning properly again. Yeah, that all sounds like a great idea.

Before Nayeon crashes on the other bed, she pats Yerim on the head and says, "Alright, soldier, go to sleep now," and Yerim almost immediately conks out. It makes Nayeon and Mina laugh, warm and fond.

The moment Nayeon's body sinks into the mattress, she feels herself only a second away from passing out too just as Yerim did. It's almost like her body didn't remember any of the exhaustion that runs deep to her bones until now. Now, all she wants to do is sleep. 

"Aren't you gonna hit the hay?" Nayeon asks Mina groggily. Her head feels so light now from how sleep-deprived she is. "I mean, this _was_ your idea."

"I know," Mina replies, "and I will. I just... I think I might just go over the documents Jeongyeon sent one more time before I go to sleep."

Nayeon doesn't have it in her to bother Mina more about this so she just shrugs and says, "Suit yourself," then pulls the blanket over her head, face buried comfortably into her pillow. 

Just before Nayeon can let herself fall asleep, Mina suddenly says, "Sleep well." She says it softly, almost like she's afraid Nayeon will actually hear her. Like she had some earth-shattering secret that she just told Nayeon.

Nayeon considers pretending like she didn't hear anything, that she'd fallen asleep already. Only problem her brain is mush right now from fatigue and when it's mush, it can't do much to keep her heart in check. She allows herself this one moment of weakness and, just as softly, replies, "You too.”

* * *

They check out of the inn at four o'clock. Just as he did earlier, the man at the front desk just pretends he doesn't suspect anything odd is going on and thanks them for staying. Nayeon and Mina muster their best, most totally-not-suspicious smiles but Nayeon's face is still sore so she guesses her smile turned out more like a grimace or something equally as unpleasant. Front desk man doesn't say anything about that either and Nayeon decides she likes this guy after all.

Nayeon is relieved that Mina rented an SUV for their trip to Changsha. She might have gone mad if they had to be crammed into a sedan, and after the nightmare that was Train to Xi'An, Nayeon would rather they travel in a vehicle that was less… claustrophobic.

"I saw a convenience store down the block," Nayeon says, "maybe we should stock up on snacks and stuff before we head out." Yerim beams, "Snacks are good."

The woman behind the counter doesn't look up from her newspaper when Nayeon, Mina and Yerim enter. Nayeon looks around for a quick survey of the other people in the store: some teenage boys that look like they have very sticky hands and not very good intentions, a middle-aged man that can't seem to pick between Canned Good A or Canned Good B, a young mother and her infant child. No one that Nayeon could ever really consider dangerous, even if the boys did look more than eager to steal a candy bar or two. Nayeon looks around a little more then spots four CCTV cameras. If something were to happen here… Nayeon would rather not think about anything at all happening.

Yerim grabs one of the bags of chips from the rack, hands it to Mina and asks, "Unnie, what does this say?"

" _Pepsi_ …. _chicken_ ," Mina mumbles to herself in Chinese then, frowning, says to Yerim in Korean, "They're Pepsi-and-chicken-flavored chips."

"Pepsi and chicken?" Yerim asks. She furrows her brows in confusion as well. "Isn't Pepsi a soda? I remember Papa mentioning that before. Does soda go well with chicken? Is it supposed to?"

"Separately, sure," Nayeon answers, randomly picking out bags of funky-sounding chips now too, "but I don't know about Pepsi-marinated chicken." She pauses for a moment to ponder on that and then says, "Actually, it sounds kind of delicious. You think they have any of that stuff here?"

They follow behind Yerim as she scurries to where the candies and chocolate are, grabbing handfuls of them excitedly to inspect them. Nayeon smiles to herself. It's definitely a relief that Yerim's back to her usual self. More than that, though, it's moments like this that just get to her. It's almost easy to forget that they're not just here for a totally normal vacation after all and that Yerim isn't the daughter of a nuclear engineer on the run from the North Korean government. Moments like this, Yerim is just like any other kid out there without very dangerous men chasing after her and without two equally dangerous women covering as her moms.

"I've been thinking," Mina says suddenly, pulling Nayeon back out of her thoughts. It takes another second before Nayeon realizes Mina had spoken to her in Japanese, not Korean. Nayeon's eyes flicker to Yerim. Whatever this is Mina's about to say, she must not want Yerim to know about it if she's speaking in her native tongue. She beckons for Nayeon to move a little closer then continues, "You remember how we talked about the possibility of Yerim's dad leaving a copy of his work somewhere, somehow? Maybe even with _her_?"

Nayeon looks at Yerim again, grabs a box of crackers and dumps it into their basket. "Yeah," Nayeon mumbles to Mina, also in Japanese, "I remember. You still think he did?"

Yerim walks to Mina and Nayeon and drops her loot into the basket that's getting increasingly more packed with how they're just throwing anything and everything that catches their eyes into it. Mina waits until Yerim goes back to looking at the other products available and says to Nayeon, "Maybe, maybe not. Honestly, I don't know _what_ to think." She pulls open the door to the vertical freezer and grabs three big bottles of water but, as she's about to place them in the basket, she realizes there's barely any space left and hands them to Nayeon instead.

Nayeon scoffs. "Couldn't even be bothered to ask if I would be okay with holding these, huh? Very typical of you, Myoui."

Also in very typical Mina fashion, Mina ignores what Nayeon just said and just continues talking: "I just couldn't shake the feeling of… I don't know. Unease, I guess? I just don't think that SSD would be sent after us if there wasn't something… something _more_ to all of this. I get that they can use Yerim as blackmail against her father, something to bait him back, but what if he did leave something with her? What if she knows something about this?"

"One," Nayeon replies as she grabs a bottle of iced coffee from the freezer, "you're rambling. Two: though I don't think this theory is entirely implausible, at the same time you might just be overthinking this, and you and I both know you have a bad habit of that. Three, if you wanna know so bad, then why don't we just ask her?"

Mina almost drops the basket. _"What?"_

Yerim looks at them, alarmed, but Nayeon says, "Don't worry, it's nothing," and Yerim goes back to marveling at the variety of drinks before her. Nayeon twists the cap off of her bottle of iced coffee as she tells Mina, "Why don't we just ask her? Even if she doesn't have, like… _something_ on her, she still might know about a thing or two anyway. This _is_ her dad we're talking about, after all, and Yerim's a smart kid. Maybe he mentioned something in passing to her before and it could help us figure out all of this. Not that we'd, you know, go after that thing but you get what I mean."

Mina purses her lips but then relents and replies, "Okay, so say we do ask her about it. Not now, obviously, but say we do eventually ask her about it. What do you think she'll even say?"

"That she knows nothing," Nayeon says before taking a sip of her iced coffee. Mina continues to look at her incredulously so she adds, "Hey, you asked me what I thought, and that's exactly what I think she'll say. It's… the likeliest response. I mean… yay, I guess, if there's absolutely nothing more to it. But if there is, and I'm not saying there is, I don't think her dad would have even made her aware of it. For her own safety or something like that."

There Mina is again with those pursed lips.

Nayeon sighs. "Hey, don't overthink it too much," she says to Mina, gentler and more _caring_ than she'd like, but whatever. It's out there already. She clears her throat and continues on more crassly, "I'm every bit as worried as you are but right now, our biggest problem is getting the fuck out of here. It's getting dark out and we've got eleven hours of driving to do. As much as I would like to make conspiracy theories with you here in this cozy little convenience store, we gotta get going."

Mina doesn't say anything at first but after a moment, she also just sighs and mumbles, "I suppose you're right."

"You are supposing correctly," Nayeon replies, then turns to Yerim and says, "C'mon, kid. We actually gotta pay for this stuff."

* * *

Nayeon yawns then shifts uncomfortably in her seat.

Though Mina keeps her eyes on the road, she tells Nayeon, "You can take a nap if you want, you know."

"I don't _need_ or _want_ to take a nap," Nayeon replies grumpily.

Mina's eyes flicker to the rear-view mirror to check on Yerim—she's still busy playing on her iPad—then turns her attention back to Nayeon. "That's the… what? Fifth time you've yawned in the past twenty minutes?"

Nayeon uncaps her bottle of iced coffee, takes a sip from it, then grumbles, "I said I'm not sleepy. We literally slept through most of the morning and afternoon, so the last thing I would ever be is sleepy. Why are you keeping tabs anyway? Weirdo…"

"Okay," Mina replies, but not before exhaling long and slow through her nose. Nayeon knows Mina is mincing her words for Yerim's sake when she asks, "What exactly is your problem then?"

There's a part of Nayeon that just wants to drag this pointless conversation out a little longer with the objective of annoying Mina like all hell, but she figures that the last thing they need is for Mina to get pissed while she's driving. So Nayeon just crosses her arms over her chest like a five-year-old—God knows that's what Mina thinks Nayeon is one anyway—and works her jaw. She looks at the rear-view mirror, at Yerim who's not doing a good job at pretending to _not_ be listening to Nayeon and Mina's conversation, then looks back out at the road.

Under her breath, Mina groans in Japanese, " _Fuck's_ sake, Nayeon. Would it hurt you to just answer the fucking question?"

"Fine!" Nayeon throws her hands up in defeat. The silence inside the car makes her voice boom thunderously loud as she says, " _I AM BORED OUT OF MY GODDAMN FUCKING MIND AND I AM LITERALLY ABOUT TO GO INSANE FROM IT._ "

Only the hum of the car's engine cuts through the (god-awkward) silence. Even Yerim has stopped tapping away on her iPad.

It's only been two-going-three hours since they left Xi'An but the entire car ride so far has just been so deafeningly quiet. The first thirty minutes or so weren't that bad since everyone was still quite chatty and Yerim was still amazed by the highway and the passing surroundings, but eventually the conversations had died and Yerim went back to playing her farming-Bumble-hybrid game when she realized there'd be nothing much left to see outside. That left Nayeon with… well, it left her with nothing, really. Nothing except the monotonous view of the highway, the sound of the car's engine and her thoughts.

Fuck. The last thing Nayeon ever wants to be left alone with are her thoughts, which could be about nothing and everything all at once, flying at a hundred miles per hour in her head. Shoot her, break her bones, fucking waterboard her even. Nayeon can withstand all of that, she can take it all and then some, but God forbid she is ever left alone with the hellscape that is her mind with its very, very, _very_ loud thoughts. This is why she hates this kind of quiet. This is the kind of quiet that makes Nayeon restless. And maybe it's not just that that's really bugging her about it. Maybe it's more the fact that normally—no, _in the past,_  there was one thing that would counter the effect this jarring quiet had on her. Just that one thing. The only problem is she's long since deleted it from her phone, afraid to open it like some kind of Pandora's box that would bring out… she's not sure exactly. Or maybe she does know but she'd rather just pretend she doesn't. Point is, whatever it could bring out or bring _back_ is not pleasant.

Maybe it's more the fact that this predicament is forcing her to think of _that thing_ and of all the memories attached to it. Maybe it doesn't help either that Mina is with her now as if she were the salt the universe was rubbing into Nayeon's wounds.

It feels like an eternity and a day has passed but, finally, Mina cuts through the silence when she asks, "That's it?"

The question takes Nayeon by surprise. She's not quite sure what she was expecting Mina to say but this definitely wasn't it. Nayeon hates to admit it, but she's starting to feel silly now that she's shouted all of that out there. She slinks lower into her seat and forces herself to look straight ahead, mouth shut tight.

"Nayeon."

Nayeon crosses her arms over her chest.

" _That's it?_ "

Nayeon is glad it's dark already because that saves her any further humiliation from having Mina see how red her face has gotten.

"Nayeon—" Mina suddenly snorts, a small grin flashing across her face, and she just barely suppresses a chuckle. She bites down on her lip to stop herself from laughing again but Nayeon can see Mina's still smiling, so thoroughly amused it makes Nayeon kind of want to die, really. Mina takes in a deep breath first and, in the moment she's able to compose herself, says, "Dude, seriously. _That's it?_ "

 _'Dude'._ God, it's even worse than Nayeon thought. Mina's so amused with Nayeon she's forgotten to pretend to be hostile to her entirely.

Weakly, Nayeon snaps, "Fuck off."

Mina doesn't hold back this time and just bursts into laughter, laughing so hard it makes Nayeon worry for a second that she might get them into a car crash. Worst of all, though, even Yerim lets out a little _pfft!_ at the back. It's the cruelest betrayal of all.

"Oh, come on, not you too!" Nayeon groans.

"I'm sorry, unnie, it's just—" Yerim falls into a fit of giggles. She flashes guilty but still dancing eyes at Nayeon. "I'll stop now, I promise."

Mina, meanwhile, hasn't stopped laughing yet. She looks like she's even _crying_ now. Nayeon's worst fear is almost realized when Mina, too busy laughing her stupid ass off, almost swerves into the next lane just as a car zips by. It only _almost_ ends in a disaster because Nayeon hand shoots out to grab the steering wheel and set them backs straight in their lane. Nayeon's heart comes back down from her throat to where it should be in her chest as she exclaims, "Quit laughing and focus on the road, you idiot!"

"Sorry, sorry," Mina wheezes, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. She takes a deep, albeit shaky breath to compose herself _for good_ this time. It almost looks like the shitshow is finally over until Mina says, smile tugging at the corners of her lips again, "Just— _wow,_ Jesus. That was it?"

Nayeon glares at Mina. "I thought this discussion was over."

Mina doesn't seem to hear Nayeon at all as she continues, "You were… bored. That was it. You were just bored."

"Are we _done_ here, Myoui?"

Mina clearly has no plans of dropping the topic. "Geez, you could have just said so! You didn't have to, you know…" She waves a hand vaguely at Nayeon.

"Sulk?" Nayeon offers halfheartedly.

"Sure. Let's call it that."

Nayeon glares even harder at Mina. "Now what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"God, I really can't believe that was it," Mina chuckles, so lost in her own world, "and _just_ that."

Nayeon might as well be talking to a brick fucking wall, which is exactly what it's like talking to Mina in general. She pinches her nose. "Mina, please, for the love of God: drop it already."

"I know, I know. I'm just saying, you could have said something earlier," Mina patronizingly tells Nayeon.

"Yeah? And what would you have done about it?" Nayeon counters. There's a part of Nayeon that's a little glad this stupid conversation is happening because it's honestly the most exciting thing that's happened in nearly three hours. Mina doesn't need to know that, of course. "Put the car on autopilot so we can play a nice family game of Monopoly? Can this car even run on autopi—Fuck do I care. Anyway, you get my point."

It takes both Nayeon and Mina by surprise when Yerim, who'd just been following their back-and-forth, suddenly pipes in, "We could play music."

Just like that, it's deathly quiet in the car again.

With their bickering, Nayeon had almost forgotten why she was so antsy in the first place. There's something to be said about how a fucking _playlist_ is what got them into this situation in the first place, and there's definitely even more to be said about how a playlist could make Nayeon crumble to the ground. There's no reason for it to still make her feel this way, or _any_ kind of way for that matter, when she's deleted it from her library already and she's almost certain Mina must have gotten rid of it for good too.

(If the thought of that makes Nayeon feel anything, she just ignores it.)

Mina doesn't say anything for a moment, her grip on the steering wheel tightening (only Nayeon notices this, of course), but her shoulders and her grip eventually relax as she says, "Yeah, that's a great idea, Yerim. Music. We can do that."

Nayeon keeps her eyes on Mina the entire time as Mina reaches for her phone and hands it to Nayeon.

"You still remember it right?" Mina asks. Just from the strain of the muscles on her neck it's obvious she's doing everything in her power to avoid Nayeon's eyes.

Nayeon blinks, briefly confused before she realizes Mina meant her passcode. _Oh._ Gingerly holding Mina's phone in her hands, Nayeon inputs the passcode she's surprisingly still got memorized. Even more surprising to her is that it's still the same one; Mina hasn't changed it. Now that she thinks of it, she's not even really sure why she thought Mina would change her phone's passcode. It's not like it _wouldn't_ make sense either if Mina wanted to (literally) lock Nayeon out of her life in every way possible.

Great. Nayeon's found herself neck-deep in her thoughts again.

When Mina notices that Nayeon's just frozen up entirely, Mina's phone just waiting in her hands, she awkwardly clears her throat and mumbles, "It's, um… the playlist… you, er, know where to find it. Yeah."

Nayeon feels like her heart's been struck by lightning.

All of the air's been sucked right out of her lungs and Nayeon thinks she might just faint, but she musters whatever strength she has left in her weak, weak bones and says, "You kept the playlist?"

Once the words leave her mouth, so does all the strength left in Nayeon's body. She feels like she's floating but like she's drowning all at once, which hardly makes any sense at all. Hell, _nothing_ has made sense for Nayeon for a long time now, especially when it comes to Mina and this… this _thing_ they have between them.

Mina's knuckles turn white from how tight she's gripping onto the steering wheel again, though she doesn't say anything in response. It's already an answer in and of itself.

Although her brain is still mush, Nayeon does become aware of how Yerim's eyes ping-pong between her and Mina, curious about whatever the hell it is they're talking about but also maybe a little guilty that she's even listening in on something so… personal. It makes Nayeon feel bad for letting her sit through this in the first place. Saying nothing more on the matter, Nayeon connects Mina's phone to the car stereo, opens the playlist (and it's there, alright, just like Mina said it would be and just like it always has been) and hits shuffle. Once the song starts playing— _My, my,_  sings ABBA, _at Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender_ —Nayeon immediately sets aside Mina's phone as if holding it for too long will burn a hole right through the flesh and muscles of her hand.

Nayeon focuses all of her attention to the song playing, tapping her fingers on her lap to the beat of the song. Playing music doesn't really do anything to make things any less awkward but at least they don't really have to talk to each other about it (whatever 'it' is, and it could be any number of things at this point) if they don't want to. She can still feel Yerim's eyes on both of them, probably trying to piece together just what the hell is going on.

Nayeon continues to tap along to the song, somewhat settling herself into this not-quite-quiet.

 _The history book on the shelf is always repeating itself_ …

Just as the song hits its chorus, Mina mumbles suddenly mumbles in Japanese, "I figured I'd be the only one of us who kept it."

Nayeon doesn't fail to notice how Mina tried to make it sound snarky or give it a bit of a sting, but in the end, all Mina sounds like is… _sad_ , and maybe even a little bit remorseful.

_Waterloo, I was defeated, you won the war…_

The fact she even said it in Japanese only betrays more than Mina would perhaps like to tell Nayeon. It almost feels like they have this little _secret_ between the two of them, one that Mina didn't want anyone else to know about… or maybe she just couldn't find it in herself to share it with anyone else, holding onto it as if she were holding on for dear life. Somehow, it feels like Mina's own way of saying, _This is for you, and only you._

_Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to…_

As always, Nayeon somehow understands what Mina is really trying to say.

For a moment she muses about how she doesn't recall the last time she and Mina ever spoke to each other directly: no snark, no metaphors, no roundabouts. They've gotten too used to talking to each other without really _talking_ to each other. Still, they always managed to figure out each other's words somehow, whether from all the time they've spent together or just from this strange, inherent kind of understanding they have of each other.

_Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you—_

Nayeon grabs Mina's phone and changes the song.

Mina actually turns to look at Nayeon for a second longer than what could be considered safe, brows raised in question.

"I liked that song," Yerim murmurs at the back. Nayeon doesn't turn around to look at her because she's sure Yerim must be pouting and Nayeon's heart has already been through too much tonight.

"I… just wasn't really feeling it," Nayeon tells Yerim, pauses, then nods to herself. "Yeah. That's it. Wasn't feeling it, is all."

"Huh," Mina says. The song's barely even started when Mina suddenly reaches for her phone and starts scrolling through the playlist.

Nayeon hand almost shoots out for the steering wheel again. "Fucking— _Oi!_ Myoui, keep your eyes on the road!" she scolds Mina, whose eyes go from her phone to the road and then back. "You are a fucking safety hazard on the road, Jesus fuck. Kid, hey. Yerim, when you finally learn to drive and you get your driver's license, you better not drive like this _idiot_ —"

Nayeon freezes when that all too familiar bass line hits.

Mina puts her phone away (Nayeon is momentarily relieved of any fears that Mina is going to get them killed in a car accident), and her face breaks into a smile. She starts singing along softly to the song— _"All I know is that to me, you look like you're lots of fun"_ —and it's like the musical number equivalent of Mina nudging Nayeon with her elbows, trying to get her to loosen up. Mina sets her eyes on Nayeon and, her smile only blooming more, she cheekily says, "Come on, I know you love this song."

Nayeon bites the inside of her cheek to stop herself from smiling too.

It's true: Nayeon is _obsessed_ with this song in all of its kooky 80s goodness, with those synths and that bass line and that tremendously catchy hook (Dead or Alive still did it better, sorry Flo Rida). It's a great fucking song, is what it is. But beyond that, beyond it being an absolutely timeless banger, there was something else about it too that made Nayeon particularly fond of the song.

Mina seems to be thinking about the same thing because, in the end, she cracks and giggles, "Hey, remember when—"

"The office Christmas party," Nayeon wheezes, her cheeks and abdomen starting to hurt from how hard she's laughing now. She doesn't even know _when_ she started laughing; it was just punched right out of her lungs, blindsiding her, and now she can't stop laughing. She clutches her stomach, tears now stinging her eyes. Nayeon wipes them away and nods to Mina. "Jesus. Oh God, that fucking _mess_ of a party."

Mina's laughing so hard she snorts, and with Nayeon's defenses down, she actually finds it in herself to think of it as endearing. Adorable, even. Hell, Nayeon's reminded she actually kind of more-than-tolerates Mina despite all of the hostility they put up for show.

"Jihyo would _kill_ us both if we ever brought _that_ up again," Mina chuckles. "This was the song that was playing when—" She doesn't get to finish her sentence, falling into a fit of giggles again, but she doesn't need to either because Nayeon already knows what she's referring to.

Yerim leans forward from her seat, interest piqued. "What happened with Jihyo unnie?"

Mina and Nayeon exchange a glance then continue on laughing. Even though Yerim is still clueless, just the sight of Mina and Nayeon not at each other's throats seems to be enough to make her smile too.

"Maybe we'll tell you later," Nayeon says to Yerim and adds with a wink, "But you better keep it a secret, okay? It's sensitive, _hilarious_ information." Yerim's eyes light up but she puts on her most serious face and nods earnestly.

When Nayeon turns back around in her seat, Mina looks over to her and says, "Hey."

Nayeon cocks a brow in response.

"Truce?" Mina offers with a lopsided but hopeful smile. It’s like she’s trying to make amends for earlier, and for that comment especially. Like she’s trying to sweep it all under the rug for now or until there comes a better time for them to unpack _everything_ in that one loaded comment.

Nayeon huffs softly under her breath.

Mina, still waiting for a reply, curiously watches from the corner of her eye as Nayeon reaches down for her bottle of iced coffee. Instead of twisting the cap off of it for a sip, however, Nayeon brings the bottle closer to her lips like a pretend microphone and spontaneously belts out, _"All I know is that to me, you look like you're lots of fun. Open up your lovin' arms, watch out, here I come—"_

Yerim lets out a delighted squeal when Nayeon starts dancing to the chorus as she sings along to it, doing her best imitation of Pete Burns' goofy but groovy dance moves in the music video. Even Mina is pleasantly surprised by Nayeon suddenly bursting into song, whooping and hyping Nayeon up.

Nayeon gets Yerim to start dancing along as she mumbles and jumbles over the lyrics—" _You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round_ —yeah, like that Yerim; yeah you got it, you got it— _like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round"_ —but she's having fun and so is Nayeon. Mina sings along and shimmies around in her seat while Nayeon and Yerim get progressively sillier with their dancing, which Nayeon honestly thinks would make Burns proud (God rest his soul).

" _You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round,_ " Nayeon continues singing, lungs burning, " _like a record, baby, right 'round, 'round, 'round,_ " and for a moment she locks eyes with Mina, who she hadn't realized must have been watching her an adequate amount. 

Nayeon winks at her and Mina just fondly rolls her eyes.

_Yeah. Truce._

* * *

"Is she asleep?"

Mina nods as she puts her seatbelt back on as she repositions herself in her seat. She glances back at Yerim, her jacket now wrapped around the young girl's frame like a blanket, and jokes, "I'd be surprised if she didn't fall asleep after all that dancing and singing."

Nayeon looks at Yerim from the rear-view mirror and smiles. "And from all that sugar," she adds, referring to all the snacks they wolfed through earlier before Nayeon took over for driving duties. "Between you and me, I don't think we're quite cut out to be parents—fake or otherwise."

"Yeah?" Mina says as she lowers the volume on the music. It's the Kishi Bashi cover of _This Must Be The Place_ , a song that's always reminded her of Mina. Sure, Mina was the one who introduced Nayeon to it, but the lush string arrangements alone were enough to make Nayeon associate the song with Mina. There's just something about it that's so… _Mina_ , especially when she had her guard down and was at her most tranquil, her most natural. "Now what would ever make you say that?"

"Well," Nayeon explains, unexpectedly still in a peachy mood, "we did just let her go crazy on all that junk food. Worst of all, we participated in it too. That's, like, a cardinal sin in parenthood."

Mina is quiet at first… then she sighs… then finally she chuckles softly. "No," she concedes, "I don't think we're cut out for this at all."

"To our credit, we aren't doing _too_ terribly either, don't you think?"

"It could be worse," Mina agrees. " _We_ could be worse."

"Hey, look at us," Nayeon says, a grin spreading across her face, "Arguably passable parents. Who would have thought?"

Mina laughs, shaking her head. "Not me."

Nayeon hates to admit it, but this is… nice.

The past three hours or so have been nice. _Really_ nice. Maybe the nicest time Nayeon's had in a while, especially in Mina's company. The playlist, the truce—it's just like all of the other times in the past when Nayeon and Mina waved that metaphorical white flag and agreed to not be at each other's throats. Truth is, it's _nice_ when they don't have to be, even just for a short period of time. The constant state of bickering and the heavily charged back-and-forths are integral parts of Nayeon and Mina's relationship but it does get tiring keeping that up 24/7. And fine: sometimes it _is_ nice to be reminded that Mina isn't completely an asshole, and that Nayeon isn't completely one herself either. Sometimes it _is_ nice to be reminded that, for all of the times they would prefer to just punch each other in the face, they're actually (still) capable of enjoying each other's company.

Nayeon taps along to the song. _Hi-yeah, we drift in and out. Hi-yeah, sing into my mouth._

There was also the added fun of giving Yerim something of a crash course on their favorite music and artists. Yerim was thoroughly entertained when Nayeon and Mina did an over-the-top lip-sync of _Oops!… I Did It Again_ 's interlude (Nayeon let Mina do Britney's lines this time) before shouting, _"OOPS, I—_ ", pausing dramatically, then headbanging as they continued to half-yell, half-sing, _"—DID IT AGAIN TO YOUR HEART. GOT LOST IN THIS GAME, OH BABY."_ Yerim joined them too as they beat their lungs up even further by shouting along some more to Icona Pop as if it was 2012, happily chanting _"I DON'T CARE, I LOVE IT"_ with them. She cheered them on as they did their best Lady Gaga impressions; ooh-ed and aah-ed when they belted it out to One Direction; giggled whenever Nayeon and Mina did goofy little dances in their seats; laughed even harder when Mina would too enthusiastically shout _"TURN THAT SHIT UP"_ during the chorus of _Guerilla Radio_ but, right after, would tell Yerim not to say 'shit' because it's a bad word.

Yerim loved every single second of it. Nayeon and Mina did, too. Seeing Yerim having so much fun only made Nayeon appreciate the past few hours, the truce, and even the playlist a little better. She knows Mina must be thinking the same thing, feeling the same way.

Nayeon's fingers continue to tap, tap, tap softly on the steering wheel. In the passenger seat, Mina contentedly hums along to the song.

_I'm just an animal looking for a home, and share the same space for a minute or two._

Yeah. This is nice.

Despite it being well past midnight already, the highway is still quite busy. Their main companions are mostly large trucks that carry large cargo along, but there are still some late-night travelers like Nayeon, Mina and Yerim as well. Nayeon is now starting to feel the jitters from all of the bottled coffee she drank over the time Mina was behind the wheel, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because that means the coffee was strong enough to actually power her through at least another two, three hours of driving. It's bad because she might start getting _jumpy_ soon and that's not ideal when you're the one driving at the ass crack of dawn after staying up for eleven hours straight.

Nayeon barely even notices when the song, a live recording, comes to an end with applause and makes way for an even softer, sleepier song. It's almost like a lullaby.

"Hey, Nayeon?"

Nayeon checks the rear-view and side mirrors. "Hm?"

"I'm sorry about earlier."

Nayeon's breath catches in her throat.

Truth is, Nayeon's gotten too comfortable with this temporary truce already and she's really not ready to talk about _anything_ with Mina right now. Or ever. She'd rather they _never_ speak about anything about them—past, present or future—at all. She can do just fine with all the bickering and occasional civil conversation. _This_ is fine. Conversations where they open up to each other are _not._

Nayeon manages a choked chuckle, though, and jokes, "By 'about earlier' you mean…? There's a whole lot of things from earlier that you could apologize for if you ask me. I've honestly lost track already." Maybe if she just gets around this with humor, Mina will drop it entirely. Maybe she'll laugh too and say something like, _You know what? Never mind. It's nothing serious anyway. No, no, really. Just forget it._

Mina doesn't laugh, though, and she doesn't even smile. _Shit,_ Nayeon thinks, chest constricting, _she's actually serious about this._ "At the inn earlier—ah, technically _yesterday_ ," she explains softly, "I'm sorry about… that."

Nayeon's words ring in her ears: _I didn't do it for you._

She's filled with dread. This is the last thing she has the emotional or mental capacity to deal with right now. Nayeon gulps down the lump in her throat and mumbles, "Oh. Uh. It's… yeah, it's fine. You don't need to, you know…" In her mind, she pleads, _Drop it, drop it, please, for the love of God, just drop it already._

Mina doesn't wield, of course, as she insists, "No, Nayeon, I—I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't trust you." She sounds so… hurt, like she's bleeding all of her heart out now to say this to Nayeon. So hurt and so _sincere_ it makes Nayeon want to reach over and takes Mina's hand into hers (it's been so long since she's last done that). Makes Nayeon want to forgive her anyway, even if that may not be the wisest thing to do.

Mina seems to mistake Nayeon's silence for permission to continue talking because the words just start spilling out of her mouth: "It's just…I don't know what got into me, I really don't. I should have known better than to think you would actually let them take Yerim. I really should have. And I think, deep down, I did know you wouldn't. You're—you're _you_ and I know you; I know you so much better than that. But, in that moment… Prague: it all came back to me. And—Jesus, Nayeon, I don't know anymore. I don't know if any of this is making any sense. But I thought of Prague and of what I—" She bites down on her lip. "I'm rambling, sorry."

After a moment, Nayeon clears her throat and replies, "Yeah, that was… that was a lot you just unloaded on me." She tries to laugh it off but her throat is all tied up into an uncomfortable knot.

Mina's still worriedly chewing on her lower lip when she whispers, "I'm sorry…"

"Hey," Nayeon says unintentionally very gently, even if her own heart feels splintered right now, "quit apologizing already." There it is again, that need to reach over and take Mina's hand in hers like all those times before and as she always did whenever Mina would be overwhelmed by her worries. Nayeon ends up reverting back to humor when she adds, "You're starting to make this feel like some sort of confessional."

Mina's silent at first but she scoffs, amused, "I don't think that's really how confessionals work."

"I grew up in a Catholic household," Nayeon quips, hopeful that things will go back to normal now, "so I think that makes me the authority on all things confessional, at least between you and me."

Mina smiles this time but it doesn't reach her eyes.

There's a part of Nayeon that thinks it's probably best to leave it at that; after all, it seems like the conversation's come to an end anyway, so why bother dragging it out any further? However, it seems like her brain and her mouth move independently of each other because, even if she does _think_ that it's better to shut up now, she still runs her mouth anyway and tells Mina, "Look, about… about Prague…"

Mina, meanwhile, is quiet the entire time. Nayeon feels the weight of Mina's gaze on her, not once wavering.

 _Is this it?_ Nayeon wonders. _Is this_ finally _it?_ Would this finally be it, the conversation that's been long overdue, the one literally _everyone_ has been waiting for them to have? The thought of it, of finally having this conversation, of finally talking to Mina about it and telling Mina exactly what she feels… in a twisted, painful way, it fills Nayeon with a sense of relief. Three years is a long time to carry the burdens of her heart on her own. She wants to let it go. She wants to let _all of it_ go. She wants to let Mina know, wants her to share in that burden, wants to share in _Mina's_ burden. She doesn't know how this conversation is going to end or what will happen to her and Mina after it, but just this once, after so long, she wants to be able to lean on Mina again even for a while.

Mina wants this too, Nayeon knows. They've both been waiting so long for this moment—of brutal honesty, of liberation. She's waiting on Nayeon now, just as she's been doing so for these past three years. She's waiting and urging her on.

Nayeon is reminded of when Mina would take both of Nayeon's hands, weathered and calloused in all the same ways that Mina's are, in her own… softly and gently, as if Nayeon could break from even the slightest touch. Maybe Nayeon would, if not from Mina's touch then maybe from all of the worries that have been tormenting her.

_Talk to me, Nayeon. You know you can._

Three years… three years is a long, _long_ time…

"Mina, I—"

…but Nayeon doesn't think it's _enough_ time to prepare her for this conversation.

"—I can't do this, not right now. I don't know when I'll ever be ready to—" Nayeon gulps, her chest getting tighter and tighter by the second. "I don't know when I'll ever be ready for this conversation. Honestly? I'd rather we never have it at all."

"Nayeon…"

"Look, okay, I get it. I get it, Mina, I do. But I don't—I don't—" Nayeon sucks in a breath. She feels dizzy from how all the air has been sucked out of her lungs at this point, and the back of her eyes sting from the tears she's holding back. It's stupid and unbelievable. So, so, _so_ unbelievable. Still, she figures that if there's anything she's willing to tell Mina, if there's anything she _needs_ Mina to know, it's what she is about to say next. She takes in a deep breath and musters all of her (emotional, mental, and physical) strength to confess to Mina, "You know, sometimes I still… I still feel it. Like… like if I reached down, my hand would come back stained with blood. I felt nothing at first when I got shot. It just happened too fast for me to feel anything. The only confirmation I had that I did get shot was that I was bleeding. My hand, the snow all around me—all of it was covered with my blood. And the wound… it started to _burn_ after a while, and it felt like someone had just punched a hole right through my stomach and ripped my insides out. It was cold that night, New Year's Eve, but it felt like my entire body was on fire. Every muscle, every nerve, every inch of skin: I felt like I was on fire."

Nayeon licks her lips, alternately tightening and loosening her grip on the steering wheel, then continues, "It's been three years since that night but sometimes, I still feel my body burn and ache where I was shot. Sometimes it feels like a hole will tear open right through my body again and I'll find myself standing in a puddle of my own blood. Three years and I still remember everything in vivid detail. My _body_ still remembers everything, and how could it ever forget?" She scoffs. "I have a scar as a souvenir from Prague."

The silence in the car is suffocating. _Say something, goddammit,_ Nayeon wants to yell at Mina. _Fucking say something. Tell me I'm wrong, tell me I'm an idiot, tell me you hate me. Just say something. Anything. Just say something to make me stop bleeding out everything to you._

Mina doesn't say anything.

"It's funny," Nayeon chuckles, feeling as dead on the inside as she did when she was lying in the snow bleeding to death. There's nothing funny about it at all, really, but Nayeon chuckles anyway. "No matter what I do, Prague still follows me wherever I go. Still lurks in my shadow. My body aches and burns where the gunshot wound is, and I sometimes dream that I'm still lying in the snow and there are fireworks in the sky. But you know what? Somehow, that's not even really the worst of it, not by a long shot. The worst of it all is that when my wound aches, I'm reminded of what you did to me. I'm reminded that you left me there, close to death, and you chose the mission over me. It's stupid. I know it is, the same way I know you and how you are. But still, I'd hoped I meant enough to you for you to not just leave me like that. I thought—I thought it would be different.

"I'm selfish. I know that already," Nayeon rasps out, "And I'm an idiot. I know all of that. But goddammit, Mina. It hurts. It still fucking hurts."

And still, Mina doesn't say anything. In her defense, Nayeon doesn't think there's anything Mina actually _can_ say in response to everything Nayeon just told her anyway.

Nayeon takes in a deep breath, exhales, then lets a wave of exhaustion wash over her. It's all of the exhaustion from the fight in the train to these past few hours to this moment now finally catching up with her. She feels something warm trickle down her cheek and furiously wipes it away with the back of her hand. She's not going to cry, not anymore.

When she's regained her composure, Nayeon stiffly tells Mina, "You should go get some sleep. I'll wake you guys up when we're at Changsha already."

Nayeon is surprised when Mina suddenly decides to break her silence and says, "Nayeon—"

"No," Nayeon interjects, throat tightening around her words, "we are _not_ talking about this anymore. I'm—I'm tired, okay? And I still have another four hours or something to drive, so I think the last thing I need right now is anything more to stress me out while I'm driving."

Mina falls silent again. Nayeon sneaks a glance at her and finds that she's working her jaw again, lips pressed into a thin line. Her shoulders are slumped. 'Defeated' is the only way Nayeon can describe Mina right now. Nayeon already felt like shit but now, seeing Mina look like _that,_  she just feels so fucking awful. It's always one step forward, one hundred steps back with her and Mina.

She can hear Jihyo's voice in her head, scolding her for fucking up the one opportunity she had to set things straight with Mina. Hell. She deserves it. Imaginary Jihyo is right anyway: Nayeon _did_ fuck that one up really badly and now she's not sure if there will ever be another opportunity for them to talk it out again. She doesn't know if _Mina_ will be willing to, even if Nayeon might one day take the initiative. Mina had given them a chance to talk about it and Nayeon did a spectacular job of shutting out Mina even more.

What could Nayeon say now? _I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm an idiot, and I'm sorry I keep blowing every chance we get to finally fix this thing between us. I'm sorry I am the way I am. I'm sorry it had to be you. I'm sorry it had to be me._

It startles Nayeon when another car coming smoothly swoops in for an overtake.

Right. She's driving and has got a few more hours of this to go. She needs to focus. She can deal with this and with Mina later. She lightly slaps herself in the cheek twice then puts all of her attention, especially mentally, back to the road.

Bright, white light winks off the rear-view mirror, immediately catching Nayeon's attention. There's another car behind them which, in any other situation, shouldn't be a big deal; they _are_ on the road, after all. Except every time Nayeon's eyes flicker back up to the rear-view mirror, it looks like the car was getting closer and closer and _closer_ to their car.

Mina seems to have noticed this too because, puzzled, she says, "Is it just me, or is that car—"

_BAM!_

They lurch forward as the car rams violently into the back of their car. Mina grabs onto the dashboard as Nayeon struggles to regain control of the car, slamming down hard on the break to prevent it from crashing into the back of the car in front of them. She realizes too late that they've caught themselves in the middle of an ambush and that the car in front of them had purposely slowed down to lock Nayeon, Mina and Yerim down between it and the other car way back.

Yerim shrieks at the sound of gun shots fired from behind. Miraculously, the rear windshield doesn't completely break apart even under all the pressure from the bullets that were just fired at it. Not _yet,_  at least.

"Mina," Nayeon calls out as she tries to maneuver their car out of this deadlock. She looks at the rear-view mirror and finds that one of the men has positioned himself on the window, just barely maintaining his balance as he pulls the trigger on his shotgun again, the recoil rocking his body back a bit along with the strong force of the wind against him. It shouldn't take _too_ much to knock him off his perch.

Mina replies, "On it," rips off her seat belt and tumbles into the backseat. She takes out her gun, slots the magazine into it, and cocks it. She and Yerim duck as more shots are fired into the windshield. She covers Yerim as shards of glass rain all over the backseat. The windshield won't hold for much longer.

It's—quite literally—a tight situation. They have to figure out a way to create an opening big enough for her to maneuver their car out from in between these two other cars, all while making sure none of them get shot to death or anything. Nayeon has to give credit where credit is due because the driver of the car in front does a perfect job of making it impossible for Nayeon to escape the deadlock, managing the speed of the car perfectly and allowing no room for error. It's a lot trickier than it looks. There's an ugly crunch of metal against metal when their cars make contact. It continues to rain bullets and glass at the backseat. A bead of sweat rolls down Nayeon's temple.

"Any time now, Myoui," Nayeon says through gritted teeth, her eyes flickering back and forth between the car in front of her and the rear-view mirror.

"Fuck you," Mina bites back, "focus on getting us the fuck out of here," but she pushes Yerim even further down and moves around the tiny space at the back to kick at the battered windshield. She sends it flying and the shooter from the car at the back just barely misses it. To Yerim, she says, "Stay down, okay?", then she opens fire at the men behind them.

Nayeon's heart hammers against her chest, adrenaline pumping through her bloodstream. There's so much of it that it makes her dizzy for a moment. _Think_ , she tells herself. If she hits the brakes now, it wouldn't do much to help them get out; the car behind them would likely just slam into the back again, the driver also hitting the brakes, and there's no certainty that Nayeon can flick the car in front away with a risky move like that either. The only option she really had was to _drive away_ somehow, and whatever Mina does about their problem at the back could determine just how much of a chance Nayeon has of successfully doing that.

Mina ducks and the bullet aimed at her head hits the back of the passenger seat's headrest instead. Another shot is fired, and then another. Yerim shrieks and shrieks, grabbing onto Mina for protection.

_Think, think, goddammit, THINK._

Nayeon puts the car in reverse and slams her foot down on the gas even harder, sending their car lurching back and right into their assailants' car behind them. It creates enough space between their car and the one in front, but also nearly knocks the shooter at the back off of the car entirely. This is it, the opening they've been waiting for. "GO!" Nayeon shouts to Mina, and Mina immediately rushes back up on her feet and prepares to fire at the shooter. "Come on, come on," Nayeon hears Mina mumble as she tries to steady her aim at an already very unsteady target, then finally: _BANG!_ Nayeon watches from the rear-view mirror as the shooter falls from the window, rolls out into the highway and is crushed under another car that speeds by before it crashes into traffic barriers on the side of the road.

Mina continues to shoot at the car behind them, so Nayeon does her part and keeps her foot firmly planted on the gas pedal, driving their car further and further into the car at the back. The tactic seems to work at first because they face barely any resistance from the car at the back and Mina's constant barrage of bullets is enough to distract the driver, but the men in the car in front catch wind of what Nayeon and Mina are trying to do and one of them perches himself onto the window at the backseat and opens fire at _Nayeon_ this time. _"FUCK,"_ Nayeon yells. Nayeon's never been a very good Catholic but now she prays to God that the glass will hold until she gets them out of here.

The driver at the back seems to have regained his composure too because now he puts pressure on them again from behind. Mina is thrown backwards when the car behind slams into them again. "Unnie!" Yerim cries while Mina groans in pain. The front windshield isn't doing any better.

"YERIM, DOWN!" Nayeon shouts when a bullet pierces through the front windshield and flies right into the car. Mina pushes Yerim away from the bullet's trajectory and it flies right through the leather of the backseat. Mina pants, "I've got her, I've got her," and it's then that Nayeon decides what she has to do next. She doesn't know for sure if it's the right thing or the smartest thing even, and if she were good at numbers she could say for certain just chances they had of surviving this one (it's not very high, in terms of percentage), but fuck it. She's got nothing better right now. She doesn't have a whole lot of options left.

Nayeon turns and turns and turns the wheel to the left until it hits its limit, the entire car turning with it, and what happens next is a blur of shouting, wheels screeching, and metal on metal. It all happens so fast Nayeon barely has the time to register that she's sent them flying right into a traffic barrier at high speed, and the crash is every bit as gnarly and gruesome as one would expect it to be. The steering wheel slams into Nayeon's chest like a heavy-handed punch, knocking all of the wind right out of her lungs, and when the car finally slams into the barrier, her entire body limply follows the movement of the car and she hits her head on the window.

_Is this how it ends for us?_

Nayeon isn't sure just how long she was knocked unconscious before all of her senses came flooding back to her. Still seeing stars, she struggles to unbuckle her seat belt. She feels something warm trickle down from her forehead down to her cheek—blood, definitely—but she finally gets the seat belt off. Every inch of her body screams and burns with pain when she drags herself to the back to check in on Mina and Yerim. Mina holds on tight to Yerim, her entire body curled protectively around the younger girl's. Even in the dark, Nayeon can see Mina's sustained some injuries on her head as well. She gently shakes Mina by her shoulder to bring her back to consciousness and when Mina comes to, she grunts in pain and coughs. She blearily looks up at Nayeon and asks, "We're not dead yet, are we?"

It makes Nayeon laugh despite everything and despite the fact that death is still waiting for them outside. "No," she replies then hisses in pain. "We aren't. We've still got some work to do."

"Fuck," Mina breathes out.

"You okay?"

Mina nods though the grimace on her face sends an entirely different message. Meanwhile, Yerim still lies unconscious in Mina's arms. "Let's—fuck me, that hurts—let's get out of here."

Nayeon peeps out the window again. She watches as two cars almost skid off the road in the drivers' attempts to avoid the wreckage and the men striding across the highway, all armed with rifles. Nayeon slinks back down so they don't see her from the window and whispers to Mina, "I might have an idea."

"Anything is better than nothing right now," Mina whispers back. She looks like she's just a few seconds away from blacking out again.

For a moment, Nayeon second-guesses herself. While what she did earlier _did_ get them out of the deadlock between those two cars, it also very nearly killed them. It's one thing if it ends up killing the ones chasing after them—and that would be a good thing—but it also put their own lives on the line. It put _Mina and Yerim's_ lives on the line. Nayeon's not naive: she's been in this line of work for so long that she knows it's almost impossible to get by without even just a little risk, and sometimes you'd have to just take a huge leap of faith even if you're not sure what you're about to do will save you or kill you in the end. Sometimes the most dangerous option is the _only_ option. Mina knows this too, of course, but that doesn't make Nayeon feel any better. It hasn't even been a full day since the train incident and she's almost gotten them killed again.

From the moment they were assigned this mission, Nayeon knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park. No mission ever is. She'd still have blood on her hands, one way or another. She just never thought that that blood might be Mina's and Yerim's.

"Hey," Mina says softly, weakly. Nayeon almost leaps out of her skin when Mina reaches out to take Nayeon's hand in hers. She brushes her thumb over Nayeon's, then she manages a small and reassuring smile. "I trust you."

Now it feels like someone's lodged a boulder down her throat, making it difficult for Nayeon to say anything. She looks back out the window instead, out at the armed men approaching their mangled car, then turns back to Mina and says, "Move to the back. I'll—I'll handle this. Them." She pauses. "Can you…?"

"I'm fine, don't worry," Mina replies. Yerim begins to stir awake, mumbling incoherently; Nayeon is relieved, of course. Although Mina's face twists into a pained grimace again, she silently moves Yerim and herself to the back of their car, crouching low so they won't be seen from outside. To Nayeon, she whispers, "Go."

Nayeon looks over her shoulder and out the window one last time then kicks the opposite door open. Just as she planned, it catches the attention of the armed men. One of them goes ahead of the others to check out the car. Nayeon lays low and draws her gun, her heart pounding loud and angry in her ears as she braces herself.

The man walks around the back of the car cautiously. Nayeon watches him all the while, the muscles of her hands straining as she holds back from pulling the trigger on her gun too early. Finally, he moves slowly into her line of sight, rifle lowered as he inspects the car. When he leans down to look inside, his eyes widen in shock but he doesn't move quick enough: before he can even aim his rifle at Nayeon, she fires to shots at him. The bullets hit him clean in the head and he falls backward wordlessly, dropping his rifle to the ground. Nayeon rushes to slink out the car and pick up the fallen weapon. She pushes away the man's dead body and lies flat on her stomach, the buttstock of the rifle pressing hard into her shoulder. She waits until the man's companions are in a closer range, watching the movement of their feet from under the car, and when they are close enough she opens fire on them. They yell in pain and in shock when they fall to the ground. Nayeon opens fire on them again until she's certain they're done for.

Nayeon leaps to her feet then raps her knuckles against the back of the car to let Mina and Yerim know it's okay now. Yerim emerges out of the car first then Mina tosses their bags out first before emerging from the car herself. Mina tells Yerim to lie low and the young girl complies.

"What about the other car?" Mina asks Nayeon. She slots in a magazine with a fresh set of bullets into her gun. "And what about _our_ car? I don't think we can do anything to get this thing up and running again."

Nayeon squints at the other car Mina mentioned, the one that had locked them down from the front earlier. She'd been hoping that the collision would have KO'd them but the men emerge eventually, coughing and sputtering. She counts four of them. She says to Mina, "We'll figure out the escape plan later. Right now, our objective is to get rid of these guys."

The remaining men come charging towards them.

Mina nods. "So, what's our—"

Nayeon's eyes bulge out of sockets when the man leading the charge is sent flying by a car running at about a hundred miles per hour. It stops his companions in their tracks too and they watch, bewildered, as his body is launched into the air and lands a few feet behind the car that just hit him.

"—plan," Mina mumbles, every bit as startled as the others. Yerim peeks out from behind her and asks, "What happened?", but Mina gently pushes her back down and behind their car. After another beat of stunned silence, Mina says, "Huh."

"Huh," Nayeon says right back. She's barely wrapped her mind around what just happened either.

The car comes to a screeching halt too and the driver stumbles out in a panicked frenzy. In his panic, he almost doesn't notice that he's just found himself in the middle of something very, very bad and dangerous. He looks at Mina and Nayeon and then at the men on the other side of the road, seems to have realized they're all armed with guns, then breaks into a sprint back to his car. That snaps everyone else out of their shocked states too and they remember that, _right,_  they're all trying to kill each other.

"Get the car," Mina instructs Nayeon, "I'll handle these guys."

"Get the—" Nayeon frowns. "Get _that_ car?"

Mina shoots down one of the last three remaining men as she replies, "We need to get out of here somehow, don't we?"

 _Can't argue with that._ Nayeon slings the rifle across her body and says, "Alright, I'll leave this to you," then runs towards the direction of the civilian man's car. Still shell-shocked, it seems like he's having trouble starting up his car again. Bad for him, _fantastic_ for Nayeon. He shrieks when she comes to a sudden stop in front of the car, panting, then he shrieks even more when he sees the rifle.

"Calm—" Nayeon stops to catch her breath, then continues, "Sir, please _calm down._  I won't hurt you. In fact, I'm every bit a victim in this situation as you are." She walks over to the driver's side of the car, yanks the door open and says with a bright smile, "By the way, I need to borrow your car."

The man starts stuttering and it's all gibberish to Nayeon's ears. She looks back towards where Mina is doing her best to hold off two men with semi-automatic rifles. Her lone pistol won't last long against that kind of firepower. Nayeon turns her attention back to the man and tells him, "Sorry, but I think I'll have to forcibly take your car from you now," then grabs him by the front of his shirt and forces him out of his own car. Before she slams the door shut, she says, "Don't expect to get this car back any time soon, or ever for that matter." She flashes him one last smile. "God bless you, good sir, and have a wonderful evening."

Nayeon stomps her foot down on the gas and swings the car around.

She drives straight towards the last of their problems, turning and turning and turning the steering wheel to the right until it reaches its limit. Nayeon uses the motion of the car to swing at both of the men like a baseball bat, throwing them further back and, more importantly, away from Mina and Yerim. "Get in!" Nayeon shouts.

Yerim runs into the car immediately, buckling herself in, and Mina follows, tossing their bags into the back beside Yerim then rushing to the passenger seat. She slams the door shut behind her and Nayeon immediately steps on the gas again, the car lurching forward with a screech of tires. Behind them, more cars skid and crash into each other where the wreckage from earlier remains. Eventually, it disappears from their view, now long behind them.

The silence now is strange but not unwelcome. Nayeon's heart continues to pound furiously in her chest as she frantically tries to figure out where they are. The scuffle from earlier had thrown them off course and, thinking about it now, maybe it's for the better that it did. They'll have to lie low again, at least until they've figured out what to do next, and this should be enough to throw those fuckers off their track until then. She takes the exit on the right and hopes it leads them… well, she hopes it leads them _somewhere_ , is all she needs right now.

Nayeon peeps at the rear-view mirror to check on Yerim and finds the young girl staring out the window, her expression troubled. Then Nayeon looks over at Mina. It's a lot harder to figure out exactly what Mina must be thinking right now but by the look on her face, she's definitely _thinking_. Her hands are curled into fists on her lap.

Nayeon thinks of earlier, when Mina held her hand, and maybe it's just the exhaustion and adrenaline doing all the thinking for her, but Nayeon slowly begins to inch her hand towards Mina's.

She wants to feel the warmth of Mina's hands again. Wants to hold onto them like she's holding on for dear life. Wants to remember what it felt like when they weren't like _this_ —when things didn't have to be so complicated and so painful. All of that is within her reach now, literally and figuratively.

In the end, however, Nayeon's hand comes to rest on the stick shift instead when Mina suddenly twists around in her seat to face Yerim.

"Yerim, there's something I need to ask you."

  
  
  


[ ♫♫♫ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bqm4gRY3mA)

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, again, some notes:
> 
> \- [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOs-4J6rr-w/) is the thing referenced from The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).  
> \- I talk a bit about my choice of sunglasses for Mina and Nayeon [here](https://twitter.com/maximalisms/status/1137271435607519232/).  
> \- The **SSD** , or the **State Security Department** , is North Korea's "secret police agency". It's tasked to investigate crimes in the country but especially against the Kim family, provides security for North Korean diplomats and employee in other countries, and is involved with other super secret stuff sanctioned by the government. ([Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Security_Department))  
> \- This is [the road trip](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyUpoQMk56bzIAj5vd-4dhH6Rz5HSGtJP) playlist! Of course, an actual road trip playlist would be significantly much longer, but I put this together to give an idea on what kind/s of music they would listen to or would have in such a playlist. I decided to share the Youtube version of the playlist first because it's more accessible to all and it ended up being more organized than the original Spotify version, lol. I'm still organizing the latter and will post that soon too. :)
> 
> Finally, I'll be upfront and say that I can't make any promises on when the next chapter will be published but it's almost Christmas break and I'm almost done with my requirements for this semester, so chances are I'll get to do more writing during my vacation. Yay to that! Yay to me almost being free from university!
> 
> I'm on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/maximalisms/) and [Curiouscat](http://curiouscat.me/maximalist/).
> 
> Expect more drama, more heavy conversations™, more adulting and more unraveling of the truth about Prague and Minayeon's past. ;) 
> 
> See you for the next installment!


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